IN THE WAKE OF THE TANKS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 115, 1 February 1918, Page 6

IN THE WAKE OF THE TANKS

OFFICER'S STORY OF THE CAMBRAI ■ ADVANCE A WONDERFUL SCENE A Norfolk officer whose troops followed in {.lie wake of the tanks in the recent victory has written i; graphic story of his experiences and the ■battfa scene. He is now in hospital, and addressed his letter to son.e friends m Norwich. "I moved up with my platoon about 10 o'clock on Monday night to our k-icking-off point," he says, "and I can honestly say I have never seen men so little worried. We walked out into. No Man's Land and lay in front of our own wire. That quarter of an hour' was iust as bad as it could be. Everyone '"lit up,' and B gave us a ook to see if any of us needed any further advice. A single gun went off, followed: two seconds later by thousands. It, was a truly wonderful scene. lUoearly morning sky was illuminated by the gun flashes and shell bursts, ma-chine-guns rattled from a hundred emplacements, and Fritz in his terror sent up innumerable -5.0.5. , signals to his guns, which did their best to stop the oncoming tide. ~ "Miles to the right of us and miles io the left of us the attack was developed. In a few minutes there was a, Tumbling behind us, and the tanks crawled at an astonishing pace across No Man's Land. There were tanks everywhere. One could count a score going across at once in our sector, aim there were hundreds more besides, we let them get a little bit in front of us nnd then advanced at a walk, wvti tifles slung and overyone smokre,, ""tE" Bodies had got belts of wir*. 25ft. thick, but the tanks strolled over . them as if they were crops, and we wandered behind in their tracks. Ihatt arrived with my platoon on the para pet' of the Hindpnburs line casualty, when an unlucky shell dropped almost between my legs _ and put, Sufficient shrapnel into one of them to bowl me over. Coming back oyn iti.» German front line I saw a dead Drilz on the steps of a little dug-out, and. I thought I would have a look in. Imagine my great surprise when I entered the dug-out and a six-foot Fnte jumped up and 'Kameraded. J "I beckoned him out, and found 19 was rather badly bt in the foot helped him out and hobbled atong mth him for a quarter of a mile, but fount! it impossible with our own wounds; b» get him along any further. We la J him on the grass beside his wire ana send someone to help him along, lawfully grateful, and gave «£ few cicars apiece, and shook hanas nil over the place, 60, butthen,iony S redto S ■ sß^lii