BRITISH TANKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 163, 10 June 1940, Page 7

BRITISH TANKS.

MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY". (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 8. British tanks were flung into the battle to-daj- to meet the German advance south ot the Somme. The Germans augmented their infantry, attack with motorised machine-gun units, and the British, fighting magnificently against heavy odds, were obliged to withdraw their front slightly. The British tanks have given much assistance to infantry in to-day’s fighting. According to one report several tanks captured a detachment' of German infantry. The sight of tanks rearing across the fields and appearing from the edge of a green wood heartened the men, who cheered when they saw them open fire against the enemy with quick-firing guns. German' aerial activity has not been so intense as j-esterday, and it is thought that the enemy has been using its machines in a more intense attack against the French. The fighting to-dav at many points was of the most open kind, many men firing from ditches, bushes, and other rough cover. Once again the- battle rqged all day under a scorching sun. German prisoners, who complained far more about their forced marches to the front than about the actual fighting.', said, “We marched about 30 miles a day and arrived at the Somme only the day before we were flung into the battle. When we arrived we were quite exhausted.” They sai’d that on the whole they were” well fed and Poked after. Noiie of the men had taken part in -any previous actions, while some British regiments had been fighting almost continuously for more than a month. : One of the Germans stated that no petrol was available at all in ' Germany now for civilians, as it was all being used by the military.