ARMOURED MONSTERS AT THE SOMME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2928, 14 November 1916, Page 4

ARMOURED MONSTERS AT THE SOMME

THE ."TANKS" AND THEIR STORY A PAINFUL SURPRISE FOR THE HUNS Great sensation rules concerning the straugo monsters loosed on Friday against tho Germans on the Sommo (wrote tho London correspondent of tho Sydney "Sun" on September 17 last). These uncanny, ponderous creatures of steel and liro have nosed their way into tho .strongholds of tho enomy and destroyed his defences. They have slain by tho hundred, spitting ma-chine-gun bullets «nd • even shrapnel from tueir sides. They have gone over trenches and shell holes and through walls and forests, and everywhere Germans havo fled in terror from them or surrendered to their inmatos. And after tho fighting of a day they havo waddled home, like nothing else on earth, perhaps with a limp or a buckled back, but always with good service to their credit. A good deal of the story of theso "land cruisers," which though for some time known, to a few, has been the most successfully kept war secret of Great Britain, can now be told. Many months _ ago the idea of an armoured fort which would crush obstacles was brought to the notice of the War Office. Tho General Staff was critical and sceptical. It was something new, and therefore unpleasant. It involved labour. It cost money. It was outside textbooks. Tho idea w ? as abandoned until it came before tho Cabinet, when a stout advocate was found for it in Mr. Lloyd George, and he was allowed men and monoy for experiments. A well-known peer gave his estate, situated in a lonely part of the Midlands, for the factory site. A firm of agricultural implement makers was engaged to put together tho pieces, made to secret drawings by scattered iron works and engineering workshops. All approaches to the factory for long distances were closely guarded, and no unauthorised person was allowed to get near. A special, department was created, and as a subterfuge it was named the "Tanks Department." That there might be no circumlocution the department was placed directly under Mr. Lloyd George, so that if new material was required it could be ordered direct upon his authority. A rulo was made that as far as possible iio documents of any description should be used, and the usual forms of requisition and the likcwerodoneawaywitli. Itissaid that the designs, carefully guarded, aro practically the only evidenco of tho work on paper. Precaution to prevent leakage and to hasten construction could hot go further. When »t length ton of the strange, moving forts were shipped for Prance under the supervision of ' Lieutenant-Colonel Swinton, of "Eye-Witness" fame, their existence was unknown to the Germans.

Impervious to Bullets. : It is natural enough that more joking than expectation was caused by the automobiles when they got into the fighting zone. Generals, regimental officers, and men had seen artillery lay countrysides in ruin and make roadjs, as broken' and impassablo as torn and' riven fields. They had seen high explosivo shells drop upon 6-ineh guns and twist and wrecic them. They had seen a curtain of 5.0-inch shells descend upon a given lino and "make it one long pit. How, then, wore- motor-cars to cross this exposed zone of fire? How long would they shoot before boing shot to pieces? It was with doubt and hesitation that at \ length they were sent out ahead of our lines in tho dull dawn of Friday, and watched as they rumbled groaning on towards tho German tronches, with shells bursting around them and machine-gun and riflo bullets crackling against their sides. Tho monsters at onco proved their stability. The bullets were flicked from their heavy armour as a "rhinoceros would scatter bunches of insects that bit just enough' to bo unpleasant.' Bombs burst against them without as much as disturbing their equilibrium. They shook with the rumbling of tho guns in their own insides, as fire and bullets streamed from their crevices. And they moved inexorably onwards, crushing all impedimenta with their lingo weight, climbing over tronches, rolling over troe-stunips, brushing aside walls, stepping slowly over shell holes —and always spouting death and 'destruction amongst the Germans whose lines they had invaded. They were impervious to bullets, bombs, and shell splinters. Only a direct hit from a moderately-sized heavy gun could stop them, and" these direct hits proved few and- far between on the adventurous days on which they fought.

The Army Amused, Friday was a bitter and costly though glorious ' day for the British' Army. On it wo made tho greatest advance since trench warfare began. We stormed tho Germans' third line over a six-mile front, and reached such open country fighting again that once more galloping gun teams were seen in action. We had heavy losses, and wero held up in a, tornado of destruction near Courcelette. Yet the army could not help laughing until tho tears came at tho queer antics of its newest arm. Losses, advances, rebuffs, tho wiping out of 'units by ehellfiro, the disappearance of trenches and villages —these arc matters of everyday experience amidst lif© on the Sommo; hut the rumbling, growling, uncanny moving forts brought. a thrilling now interest, while their semi-human walks amongst the Germans made laughter enough for a, week of warfare.