FIRE-SPOUTING CARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1635, 9 November 1916, Page 4

FIRE-SPOUTING CARS.

THE "TANKS” AT WORK. AMAZE BEHOLDERS AS THEY CRAWL ACROSS TRENCHES. New York, Sept. 16. Tlie work of the new nrmonred ears in co-operation with the British infantry in their charges in yesterday’s successful attack is the one theme of the talk throughout Hie army to-day. “The idea was so good when it; was offered,” said a staff officer, “that wo had some built, and Hit 1 way they have gone over the Prussian trenches and have enliladed them with machine-gun lire is some return for Hu* surprise the Prussians gave us with their gas attacks in the first battle of Ypres.”

Evidently the British were utile to keep I lie building 1 of these curs entirely secret, :md the lirst that the Prussians knew of their existence was when in the misty dawn yesterday morning (hey came trundling across shell craters and over tree stumps, cutting' down many small trees on their way towards the Prussian trenches on to (he second line and even to the third line. The return to earth of ichthyosaurs or dinosaurs spurting bullets from their nostrils could not have been more amazing. “WILLIES” OR “TANKS.” While called “Willies" by the British soldiers, “tanks" is the slang word that (lie army staff has applied to these strange creations of machinery, hut (hey look less like tanks than anything else 1 in the world. It is hard to say what (hey do look like. They have been compared both to armadillos and to measuring worms, and to many other wierd creeping or crawling objects of natural history. A man-o’-war turret crossing lields, in and out of gulleys and through fences would present a spectacle resembling their progress. During the days preceding the attack, as they moved up to the front and the soldiers gazed at them, the risibilities of all ranks were tickled. All sorts of questions were propounded. Would the thing stand when it was hitched? On what was it fed? Which was its tail and which was its head? At all events it was a steel-jointed incarnation of military secrecy. Spectators laughed at it, but with the British sporting instinct hoped that it would at least have a. sporting chance. Last night wounded men back from the line forgot their pain and what part their battalion played during this battle in telling what the “tanks” did. Notes were compared between (he actions of “our” and “your” tank. Go-operating with the infantry, according to pre-arrange-ment, the grotesque creatures played the part set for them under the control of their invisible crows, which were their brain centres. Some soldiers said their battalions had nothing more to do than harvesters who gather sheaves following a, reaper and binder raked by lire. BROWSING AT REST. British army reports never had a stranger passage than one saying that JOO Prussians had surrendered to a “tank,” unless it was the one reporting that; the “tank” had been seen from an aeroplane making its way through the main streets of the village of Piers, followed by cheering British soldiers. -V staff officer spoke of one having stopped to “browse” at the edge of the wood before continuing to advance. It is small wonder that anybody who saw in motion one of these armoured motor-cars —if ear be an allowable name —should hold up his hands. They have brought a new element into the grim, monotonous

business of war, trenches, shells, ami bombs. It was (he “tank's” day, ami the “tank” made good. According to reports, trenchfuls of dead were left in its wake when (he occupants of trenches tried to hold their ground and did not. surrender or fly from its approach. Yet destructive as (he lire of the “tanks” was, many Prussian prisoners began laughing when recalling the first glimpse of them, while the British, us a result of the fact that these grotesque comrades went into the charges, are laughing and rejoicing over the day’s victory. The “tanks” have added an element of humour which put the army, through all its ranks, into a festive mood. Among the prisoners in the big drive are ,-ux colonels. One of these had the honour of being captured by a “tank,” which ran over the colonel's dug-out. He surrendered to the crew, which took him on board, and after (he light was over delivered him to a guard of infant ry.