1 Every intelligent person in every French village or town knew the numbers of all the divisions in the neighbourhood.

2 Detached posts, which could not be approached by day, in front of the main trench system.

3 Now Major-General Lord Edward Gleichen, K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.

4 A famous dug-out.

5 Now Major-General H.J. Elles, C.B., D.S.O.

6 Major R. Cooper, M.C., Royal Fusiliers, had replaced Captain R. Haigh, M.C.

7 Now Brigadier-General J. Hardress Lloyd, D.S.O.

8 Paget, the Corps Camouflage Officer, was of the greatest assistance.

9 We learned later that they had been heard.

10 An airman who flew over the battlefield is inclined to doubt this story. We must wait for the official history.

11 Major R.O.C. Ward, D.S.O., killed at Trescaut in November while leading his tanks forward.

12 This paragraph was written in the comfortable days before the lorries disappeared into battalion or brigade "pools." In the spring of 1918, when movement was necessarily hurried, my company had to do without?—?higher formations had so much of value to move.

13 Major P. Johnson, D.S.O.

14 The Tank Corps was always the very soul of economy.

15 The regimental officer always appreciated our difficulties, praised our achievements, and sympathised with us in our misfortunes.

16 S. entirely retrieved his reputation as a skilful and gallant tank commander by attacking a field-gun single-handed at Flesquieres on November 20th.

17 It was incorrectly reported later that the tank had fallen through the bridge. I have obtained the facts from Major P. Hamond, D.S.O., M.C., who was in command of the tanks at the bridge.

18 He was seriously wounded and captured.

19 Captured.

20 But it was "G" Battalion that captured the wood a year later.

21 It was known later that the two attacking forces were instructed to meet at Metz, a mile or so from my camp.

22 I quote from memory, but I am certain of the words "will attack."

23 It was in fact intended to inform the General that two battalions of the 2nd Tank Brigade would attack from the directions indicated.

24 See p. 169.

25 See 'Adventures of a Despatch Rider,' p. 15 et seq.

26 An average time for detraining twelve Mk. IV. tanks is thirty minutes.

27 The 2nd and 8th Battalions were armed with the Mk. V. tank, a swifter and handier tank than the Mk. IV., and the 15th Battalion with the lengthy Mk. V. Star.

28 Certain Canadian battalions only reached the "start-line" in time by doubling.

29 It was, of course, only the luck of the game. This particular battery of Horse Artillery was brigaded with the Australian Artillery and went where it was told. It finished the day in close support of the infantry at Morcourt.

30 Sergeant Bell was awarded the D.C.M. He was killed in action on September 28.

31 Lieut. F.M. Holt was one of my most promising and gallant subalterns, who, if he had lived, would certainly have received early promotion. He was a charming companion in the mess. We could ill afford to lose him.

32 At that period the sponsons of Carrier tanks were made of boiler-plate, which was not proof against bullets.

33 The numbers include orderlies, cooks, batmen, &c.

34 For the actual carrying?—?cooks, &c., excluded.

35 Lieutenant (later Captain) S.A. Thomas, M.C.

36 It was in these local attacks that tanks suffered most severely.

37 In any case it was bad policy for Mk. IV.'s and Mk. V.'s to move in the same convoy.

38 We could always obtain rum: every tank carried a supply to revive its exhausted crew. At Cambrai each of my tanks carried a bottle of whisky in place of rum, but this innovation tended to bunch the infantry?—?Argylls?—?dangerously near to the tanks, and in subsequent actions we reverted to rum.

39 I hope I shall be forgiven if I mention the fact that this village was commonly known as "Teddie Gerard."

40 These were easily distinguished, as my tanks were the only Mk. IV.'s in the neighbourhood. Mk. V.'s and "whippets" leave a different track.

41 One battalion, or at least one company of it, spent the first Christmas after the Armistice in building a camp for itself, although there were several pleasant villages in the neighbourhood.