DEVIL' S CHARIOTS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 22 December 1916, Page 5

DEVIL' S CHARIOTS.

GERMANS AND THE TANKS. The Dussedorf Eanzeiger's correspondent describes the Bnitish tanks and their effect on the astonished German soldiers: — "As the German trench posts came out of their holes in the foggy dawn of September Hi and raised their heads again after the heavy iiion blows of the night and looked towards the English," he says, "the blood froze in their veins, for two mysterious monsters came creeping over the crater fields. Stupefied by the earthquake that had' waged all around them, they all rubbed their eyes which were rivettcd. as if they were deprived of their senses, on two fabulous creatures. Their imagination was flogged by the storm of fire, and they were full of excitement. They had learnt not to fear men. but there was something approaching which a human brain with tremendous mechanical powers had fitted out as a devil's trick. A sense of the mystery which oppressed and shackled their, powers, because they could not comprehend it, and a feeling of fatality against which one was helpless, came over all. "One stared and stared as if paralysed. The monster approached slowly, hobbling, moving from side t<v side, rocking and pitching, but it came nearer, Nothing obstructed it. A supernatural 'force seemed to drive it onwards. Someone in the trenches, cried. 'The devil comes,' and that word nan down the line like lightning. Suddenly tongues of fire licked out of the iron sides of the caterpillar. Shells whistled overhead and in a terrible orchestra the machine gun orchestra filled the air."