Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1916 — TELLS OF WORK IN NEW “TANK” [ARTICLE]

TELLS OF WORK IN NEW “TANK”

Young Australian Who Served in Machine Despribes Expe- • rience in Diary. BOLT LIKE SCARED RABBITS * “No Trailing Clouds of Glory” When Enemy Is Dispersed Machine Gun Fire Has No Effect on Hlfle of Monster. London.—The daily work of a tank on the western front has been graphically described by a young Australian soldier who was wounded while serving in one of these new engines of war. The description, in diary form, appeared in the Manchester Guardian. Monday—Out for first time. Strange sensation. Worse than being UA a submarine. At first unable to see anything, but imagined a lot. Bullets began to rain like hallstones on a galvanized roof at first, then like a series of hammer blows. We passed through it all unscathed. Suddenly we gave a terrible lurch. I 'thought we were booked through. Lookout said we were astride an enemy trench. “Give them h—l” was the order. We gave them it. Our guns raked and swept trenches right and left

Got a peep at frightened Germans. It was grimly humorous. They tried to bolt like scared rabbits, but were shot down In bunches before getting to their burrows. Machine guns brought forward. Started vicious rattle on oar “hide.” Not the least impression was made. Shells began to burst. We moved on and overtook some more frightened Germans. Cut their ranks to ribbons with our fire. Tuesday—Off for another cruise. Peppering begun at once. Thought old thing was going to be drowned in shower of bullets. Things quiet down quickly. Silly blighters thought they could rush the tank like they would a fort. Dashed up from all sides. We fired at them point blank. Devilish plucky chaps some of them, for ail their madness. The survivors had another try. We spat at them venomously. More of them went down.

Not a Reception Committee. Suddenly a jolt, anti ew~hearts jolted in our mouths in sympathy. Nothing doing in the mishap line. Only Usome unwonted obstacle. Heavier “strumming” on our keyboard outside, and more regular. Machine guns at it now. Straddled on as though we liked it. A tremendous thud. The wiiole outfit seemed done for. Nearly jumped out of my skin. Looked at each other and wondered what it was. Still a roof over our heads, thank God. Wednesday—Early start. Roughest voyage yet. Waves of fire seemed to break over us. Tremendous crash. Then another, and several others at intervals. Silence for a time. Party of Germans came to meet us outside the village. Very stout old gentleman in front. Thought It was the mayor and village bigpots to give us a civic welcome. Mistaken. They meant to give warm reception, but not as we understood the word. Let fly with machine guns. Then tried silly boarding tactics. We laughed. Our guns answered theirs.

Tank reception committee dispersed in a cloud of smoke and flame; no trailing clouds of glory. ” Thursday —Got into the village, and passed down between two irregular rows of wrecked houses. Hundreds of Germans came rushing up from cellars and from behind ruins to see us. Some had eyes staring out of head. Lookedsufprised and even frightened. Friday —Early afloat. Usual showers of bullets and a few shells on the way. Got right across a trench. Made the sparks fly. Went along parapet routing out Germans everywhere. Enemy terrified. Tried to run, but couldn’t ke€p it up under our fire. Threw up the sponge and surrendered in batches. Saturday—On the move before

breakfast. Terrible crash on first go off. Thought we had collided with a wandering world. Weathered the storm. Got busy on enemy trenches. Rare good sport. Enemy tried a surprise for infantry—Yorkshiremen —advancing to attack. We tried a surprise, too, and ours came off first. Germans wereh’t pleased. XWe waddled into their ambush for the attacking troops. Never saw men so frightened. Fled panic-stricken in all directions. f Went snorting after the enemy wherever we could find them. Their losses were terrible. Sunday—Blighters opened rifle fire on us at two hundred yards. It went like water off a duck’s back. Fritz couldn’t make it out. Kept up the fire, but got a bit nervy as the blessed old thing kept w’addllng up to him. Ladled out death as you might vamp out indifferent music from a hurdygurdy. Fritz got fits. No fight left In him.« Prisoners scared to death. Some of them acted as though they believed that we used our tanks for making sausages out of prisoners. We had a lot of trouble explaining that once they surrendered they were safe. Finished an exciting week. Got plenty of fun, but one wants a good rest after a spell with a tank.