Run Over by a Tank

Levin Daily Chronicle, 2 July 1918, Page 4

Run Over by a Tank

— ... r HOW THE "DIE-HARDS" ESCAPED For some time there was doubt as to whether enemy tanks had really been in action, writes Mr Hamilton Fyfe in the '' Daily Mail.'' This doubt- was set at rest by the arrival at a certain headquarters of an officer of the Middlesex Regiment ,who had the best reason for knowing they were in the field. He had been run over by one. His was an extraordinary adventure. He was in his trench —not a deep tronch either—when out of the mist, which was thick in the early morning, as it usually is when the Boche attacks, he saw ari immense tank trundling along. He saw also that it would be usoless to get out of his trench and run. Th« tank guns would shoot him down. So he stayed where he was, firing at the slits in' the armour-plating with his revolver. " I knew that wasn't any good,'' this "Old Die-Hard" officer said ,as he told the story, "but I had to do something to cheer myself up. Tou can't' sit still and let a tank run over you. The thing was coming straight over our trench. It was impossible to get out of the way." On it came and plunged at them. All ducked their heads instinctively, not hoping to escape, but by a piece of good luck they did escape. The tank did not break the trench in. It' passed over, and to their great surprise they found themselves alive. Somehow, the captain guided his handful of men back to our lines through the enemy, and fhey told their astonishing tale. I : ' •'