THE TANK COUP.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1918, Page 6

THE TANK COUP.

■BYNG'S GREAT SURPRISE. EARLY MORNING APPARITION. WHY THE GERMANS FLED. British anus have again challenged and dei'ealed ihose of the boasting Kaiser (writes Sydney Sun's London representative,!. Tliej.luue broken through his defences, at points where labor and material had been lavished upon trenches, tunnels, dug-outs, fortresses They have made the formidable llindepburg line look like a cut steel band, which rips up on either side when riven. They have taken III.IHJU prisoners and many guns, and released the French civilian prisoners of a dozen villages. The hero is General Byng. Byng -got together' -100 tanks. Such fleets had never before been seen. He collecter them from all sectors of the front. He picked them oil' the Ypres railway swings, as soon as mud and shell-holes made their use in Flanders unprofitable. He brought them grunting, clanking, rumbling down by every road. He got a few extra divisions from the north, and got up the cavalry corps, of which he was- at one time a distinguished brigadier- Doubtless the Germans knew something of these movements. Probably they thought the divisions were on the roads for Italy. Certainly they felt secure. They raided our lines east of old Bapaume two nights before our attack, and took two prisoners. Those prisoners were brave Tnen. Spme men would have "babbled-" about our plans would have cost thousands of lives. Yet the first the Germans knew was when these hundreds of tanks bore down upon them through the early I morning mists, rolling out their belts o't wire, crashing' across their trenches, spitting out volumes of machine-gun and gun fire. THROUGH GOOD GROUND. j It must have been a wonderful sight-| At, the appointed moment the tanks went forward-. Here the ground is little cut about by sheila- Xo offensive has torn its surface. Artillery has been feeble. There is a green grass, thistles grow high, and red puppies wave their heads untouched. Such is ideal country iur tanks. Many failed—the old stories, engine trouble, enemy artillery, falls into impracticable holes. Tint only a small percentage of Ibis mass. There were hundreds left to go forward. They cleared a path for infantry, and as the Germans saw the advancing masses, ani ■heard the road of our secretly-collected artillery, great f'aesarism. incontinently collapsed, dropped its bundle, put its tnil down, did all those ridiculous things wide!) bring us such reljef on a battlefield—surrendered, cried for mercy, ran awav, went; mad The victory had been won within hail an hour of the start. WHERE TANKS MEET TROUBLE. The Roche has had to put up with some queer apparitions. The first attack hy tanks was equally a .-uprise, and the Huns (led from them. St ; -.\nge monsters, they are as 'inexorable as they ate cumbrous. They have two enemies —bad country and enemy shells. Here tlicir enemies were almost non-existent. As the day progressed the Germans got many direct hits upon the monsters, and the wreckage of tanks is great. At one point a German battery was firing at tanks at point blank range—something less than 3-t.d yards—and we were hold up until cavalry cleared a way, s'lbreing the gunners at their' posts.

At .mother place serious trouble was caused by flic depth and width of a German trencli, which sonic tanks could not negotiate One tank fell into a canal. Others pot jammed on a bridge, whien Hio Germans had not time, bo hurried was their departure, to destroy. Other* ran out of petrol. Others broke their caterpillars, others their steering gear, others had their little tails shot off.

But still hundreds vent on. They passed through three main series of entrenchments, each series separated by llhont 1")00 yards of rolling, grassy territory, dotted with villages and farmyards, each series a network of scientifically perfect defences, huilt as firmly as an Kirvptian monument, with tunnels, cupolas sniping posts, concrete lookouts, and all as clean and tidy as though new. This tlindenburg line is not scoffed at l>v soldiers. I east „f j,l| ;.- '.' .!..,•■ ,|,.,i ;, v Aiisiralians. who, during their two attacks at this strongest junction-point at Bullccourt and Qucaiit, learnt its strength. Yet the tanks cut it as clearly, as the prow of a battleship cuts the water-cut il on a front of-ten miles, and the infantry and cavalry swarmed ihi'otigh like bees. A BATTLE OF MOVEMENT. Hcio af. hist was the 'break through'' on a workable scale. ! t ,vas a clever "bit of strategy, carefully wurk'd out tactics, and peculiarly' aucaceus experiment lie tank had ir>vc 1".;,,, „sed in masses before. Truth to tell, we had not the masses for such battles. Once, and only (nfc. they had bo mi .-nit out to prqwre th.. way as "artillc -y of assault," in I'lact' of the usual stationary artillery. On that occasion, when only eleven or twelve tanks were employed", they failed utterly and pitiably. It was Hie first battle of ISulleeourt,'when the lino Australian llrigade and two battalions of the llrigade, were cat up after breaking through the llinheiiburg trench system aiid digging a salient in the enemy's strongest line. Perhaps that lesson was worth the price. For on that lesson the whole of the victorious strategy was planned. And the tank came back into' its own. All Tuesday tire advance continued. Men trod again green grasses. They had the exhilaration of movement. Their hcings tingled as they went forward from bill to hill and village to village, finding opposition here and there—fighting hard for C'ouillct Wood, for instance, and having a veal race to reaeli the Scheldt before Hie enemy, so that bridgeheads could be secured. It was open movement again—an advance in triumph. There were masses of cavalry—whole j divisions of them. What a sight they must have made—trolling forward in 1 U.ie rain, willi Che water seeming to stee! men and horses . with their mounted artillery, and their lances, and sabres and guns, all turned out in that gleaming- cleanness and smartness which mark's a British cavalryman wherever he is found. '■"Wn will sh-p them merry hell this t'ine," shouled one officer (o a war correspondent. "Our chance at last!" That was (he (brill that went through those" mounted divisions. WHAT THE CAVALRY DID. The second phase of the battle was »yalrv action, Supported by all the

light artillery that could he moved forward, by divisions of infantry, by brigades of new tanks, by replenishing old tanks,'the cavalry set out on Wednesday morning to extend our gains. They did well. They charged 'batteries), sabred gunners, and captured guns. They took villages—Mareoing and .Masuicres are among their prizes—and held them until infantry came up. They worked round the strongly fortified Hois de P.ourlon. and at one lime were within coo-ce of f'ambrai. ''"hey stormed Fontaine, and, dismounted, held oil' (he Germans until an infantry battalion arrived- The going was slippery and heavy; and horses get tired; but the cavalry oa Wednesday evening was still rollicking ahead. I think I am right in saying that it was not until Thursday morning that the idea of an immediate break-through was seen to be impracticable, owing to the rapidity with which the fiermans moved down new divisions to the defence; and it was then that the eavalrv was withdrawn. I cannot speak authoritatively on the losses, by which battles have to he judged in this war of attrition, and it is impossible therefore to say whether this advance will be judged, in the end, as a real success. But certainly the cavalry did gallantly, and they arc happy now that they have had a real part in the war. The movement has been /becked. Mar- ! shal "Rupprccht got a division of Guards reserves down from f.nns, and gathered numerous resting battalions—even con valosconts and medically unfits—into his new line. Tie counter-attacked with vigor and great strength. Our tired troops had to heat off masses of Germans, and lie under heavy shell fire, brought upon them from three sides of the new salient They had to iro through all the bitterness of tiredness and constant danger and sleeplessntias and hunger on the battlefield.