FUN WITH “TANKS.”

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 February 1917, Page 2

FUN WITH “TANKS.”

CHASING FRITZ. Some highly entertaining details of his work arc given by a Warwickshire non-eommissionecl officer, who has served with a “Tank” during recent operations on the Western front, in a letter '.homo. “Whjen \wc gpt (back again we had a change of name. Instead of the ‘Birmingham,’ they called us the ‘Royal Warwick,’ and for much the same reason We had hell’s own time of it during our first run,, and, as ‘sailors’ are naturally superstitious, some of our crew put that down to the change of name.. However, the work was more exciting, and some of the chaps who were with us declared they wanted the name changed every day of the week.

“Our first difficulty was to get through a big sheet of water that had gathered as the result of the heavy rains in our part of the line. We had a go at it., and it was a sight to sec. We got through after a good deal of manoeuvring and tacking and much, splashing of waterspouts in the air. “After w e had gone through ordeal by water, we had the ordeal by fire,, and a double dose of it, too. Old Fritz was waiting on the other side of Jordan’ for us, and he let fly at us in his best style. Bullets rattled off like so many hammers going on the hull of an unlaunched ship. The blighters soon got tired of that game, and then they brought up a flami>-cquirting outfit, and tried to continue the fire ordeal with that. We rather enjoyed that, and passed through the ordeal little the worse for wear.

“Old Fritz was at Ills wits' end to know what to do with us as we got in at his trench, and started to make our3elves at home. The 'Koyal Warwick’ -just '.■••ft 'vjd coiflifortah, \and

started to ladle out the right sort of stnlT to Fritz as quickly as could be. Fritz tried to stand up' against it for a little time, and then he started to leg it. We took some prisoners there. One chap had been in a hairdresser’s shop in Birmingham before the war. lie could hardly conceal his joy at being captured. 'Birmingham is good enough for me’ ho kept saying. “Our next adventure was with a barricade behind which Fritz was sheltering himself and his inseparable machine guns. They thought they were fairly safe, but they little knew what was after them. The 'Royal Warwick’ just sniffed the air like an intelligent animal and made straight for the barricade We went right over just as easy as a man might put his leg over a low wall. You never saw men more surprised than the wh-eu lour ‘tank’ poked its nose over their barricade and sort of wished them good morning. “Fritz couldn’t have scooted quicker if he had suddenly been called back to Berlin to receive the Iron Cross. He was in such a hurry to get away that ho left a lot of machine guns and other trifles behind him. Not the least important was the making of a square meal, which our boys enjoyed later in the day when there was a lull. After that it was nothing but joy-riding up and down at the heels of the flying Germans. They didn’t put up much fight, and the further we. got behind their first line, the greater was the terror they seemed to inspire. ’ ’