Amabel Williams-Ellis

THREE NEW TYPES OF TANK—THE DEPOT—CENTRAL WORKSHOPS

I

The “Fighting Side” had now been for many months almost exclusively engaged with “operations,” and having fought themselves nearly to a standstill at the Battle of Cambrai, were now in as urgent need of reorganisation as were their machines of overhaul and repair.

The present chronicle has also for long followed their fortunes, with not a glance to spare for the activities of the manufacturing and other organisations which played the supporting parts “Aaron and Hur” to the Fighting Side’s “Moses.”

At the period we have reached it is high time to pick up the dropped histories of the other persons of the drama. For while the Tank Corps had been fighting, manufacturers had been busy, and a huge network of auxiliary services and organisations had grown up, by means of which the whole Corps was to rise rejuvenated from its ashes.

Before the Tanks fought their next pitched battle the Mark V. had come into being, Whippet Tanks had been issued, a heavy type of infantry-carrying Tank had been designed, and for fast work on good roads a Battalion of Armoured Cars had grown up.

Besides this, a complete system of Supply Tanks and Field Maintenance Companies for salvage and supplies had been gradually evolved during the course of the last campaign.

The Tank Corps Depot had been enormously enlarged, and had moved to its final “location” on the coast near Le TrÉport.

The Home Depot at Wool had also increased, and there had been changes and developments at the Ministry of Munitions and in the Tank production side generally.

It is in fact impossible in a single chapter to give more than a brief indication of this universal and increasing “back area” activity.

To begin with the changes in the home organisation and in the production of Tanks.

The “New” Tank Committee was, as we have already related, a success.

In December 1917 and January 1918 it saw a rather interesting new phase, when Majors Drain and Alden, of the U.S. Tank Corps, attended certain of its meetings, and when the manufacture for the British and American Armies of the Mark VIII. or “Allied Tank” was decided upon. This Tank was never fought, but its projection is perhaps interesting as an example of inter-Allied solidarity.

By January 1918 proposals for an expansion from nine to eighteen Battalions and for a reorganisation of Tank control had been put forward.

These proposals were eventually (in April 1918) discussed by the Inter-Allied Tank Committee, a sort of sub-committee of the Versailles Conference, on which the British, French and American Tank Corps were represented.

But neither men nor really constructive thought could then be spared from the immediate needs of meeting the German onrush, and nothing was done to realise their proposals until that onrush was finally stemmed.

But in July 1918 the business was taken up again. It was decided to expand the Tank Corps to thirty-four Battalions armed with about six thousand machines.

II

In December 1917 the manufacturing situation was not particularly satisfactory. As late as August 20 the Commander-in-Chief had, it will be remembered, laid down, in an official letter, an order of priority in which there were four categories preferred to Tanks.

And though by December the views of the authorities had changed considerably, the sudden expansion of the Tank building programme was not easy.

In October 1917, 700 Mark IV. Tanks had already been delivered in France, and a balance of about 500 was still due. But the Fighting Side was anxious that these should not all be of the unimproved Mark IV. pattern. For up to now no change in the design had been made since the first Mark IV. had been delivered. It was decided, therefore, that some of the 500 should be given Ricardo engines and Epicyclic gears, and that others should be fitted as Supply Tanks.

The M.W.S.D. hoped to build about 1600 new Heavy Tanks, 800 of which were to be of the Mark V. type and ready by May 1, and the others to be of other heavy types, probably Mark V. star and Mark VI., while 385 Whippet (“Medium A”) Tanks were also to be ready by May 1918.

Further, there was to be a small cadre of Salvage Tanks and of special infantry Supply Tanks, two of the latter being able to carry complete supplies for an infantry Brigade for one day.

A large number of these Tanks were as before to be built by the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company.

A very brief account of most of these new types of Tank has already been given in Chapter I., and it is not necessary to repeat here the details of their speeds, armament, and so forth.

Salvage Tanks were usually Mark IV. Tanks on which special gear, such as winches and small cranes, had been fitted for hoisting wrecks out of the mud, or for towing.

The Supply Tank was a Mark IV. fitted with very capacious sponsons. In order to save weight these carriers were not made as fully armoured as the fighting Tanks.

The Gun Carrier Tank was a machine with an elongated tail which formed a platform whence it was intended that a 60-pounder gun or a 6-in. howitzer could be fired.

The Tank Corps Armoured Cars were of the usual turreted pattern, and were armed with machine-guns.

But more important than any other new development was the improvement in the main issue of heavy Tanks, an improvement which is very well described by the historian of the 13th Battalion:

The Mark V. had, however, one serious drawback. Its ventilation was extremely faulty. We shall see later how serious a disadvantage this was to prove.

III

There were also to be changes in the technical and mechanical engineering side of the Tank Corps itself, by which an economy of man-power was to be effected.

When the Tank Corps was first formed each Company had its own workshops, and this system lasted to the end of 1916. Then in the course of the winter reorganisation, Company Workshops were abolished and Battalion Workshops were substituted.

By the autumn of 1917 the experiment was tried of centralising still further and merging Battalion into Brigade Workshops, and early in 1918 it was decided to take the last step and to concentrate all repairs in the Central Workshops.

This system, which achieved a great economy of skilled men, was made possible by a very clear line of demarcation being drawn between Repairs and Maintenance, a principle which had been laid down by Colonel F. Searle, D.S.O., the chief engineer of the Corps and the head of the whole mechanical side of the Tanks.

No damaged part was ever to be repaired on the field; mechanical efficiency was to be maintained by the broken bit of mechanism being immediately replaced by a complete new part.

This replacement was carried out by the crew, whose efficiency as mechanics was enormously increased by being thus made responsible for their own machines.

One point had, of course, to be carefully attended to in carrying out this system. There had to be a very efficient supply organisation by which the necessary spares were quickly available in the field.

When the crew had removed the damaged part from the Tank, it was sent back to the Central Workshops to be repaired.

Here a specially skilled man would be always employed upon damages to one particular part.

It is interesting to trace what might have been the itinerary of a Tank from the time it left the manufacturers in about Midsummer 1917, till after going into action in, say, the Third Battle of Ypres.

On completion every Tank was first sent to testing grounds at Newbury, where it was manned by No. 20 Squadron R.N.A.S. From here it was forwarded to Richborough, whence it was shipped by the Channel ferry and received at Le Havre by another detachment of Squadron 20. Thence it went to Bermicourt, was again tested, this time by Tank Corps personnel, and then handed on to the Central Stores at Erin. These stores were first established in 1917, and eventually consisted of over seven acres of railway siding and six acres of buildings. The Central Workshops were at one time also installed here, but as more accommodation became necessary they were moved to Teneur, about a mile and a half away.

From the Central Stores the Tanks would be issued to Battalions as needed.

For example, during the Third Battle of Ypres a large number of Tanks were supplied to Companies actually in the line. We will suppose that a particular Tank was so supplied, and received a bullet through its carburettor during one of the small actions of the end of October.

The crew would immediately draw a new carburettor from the neighbouring mobile advanced store, which was run by one of the two Tank Salvage or Field Companies.

Thus re-equipped the Tank would again go into action, perhaps within a day of being damaged.

This time we will suppose that the Tank got knocked out between the first and second objective by a direct hit, the unwounded members of the crew going forward with their Lewis guns and leaving the Tank stranded and immovable.

The position of the derelict having been reported, men from a Tank Salvage Company would go up that night, probably under shell-fire, and possibly in full view of the enemy whenever a VÉry light went up.

The experts would arrive at the wreck with their favourite set of repairing tools, possibly consisting of the specially designed Tank-repairing outfit, but more probably of a few pet spanners, some odd lengths of tubing and a coil of copper wire. They would toil at the Tank till dawn.

Sometimes after one or more nights spent like this they would induce the Tank to go. In the Ypres area Tanks were sometimes salved that had completely disappeared into the mud. Sometimes it was possible to tow a machine away, particularly after the special salvage Tanks with their hoisting gear came into use. Sometimes only disjecta membra, such as engine parts, 6-pounders, or parts of the gears or transmissions, could be saved.

During the two years of their existence the Field Companies, at the lowest computation, saved two or three million pounds’ worth of stores, a work which they did not accomplish without heavy cost to themselves.

We will suppose that the Tank whose history we have followed was salved whole.

The next step would be that it would be entrained by the Field Company and sent back to the Central Workshops at Teneur.

This was really a vast engineering works covering about twenty acres of ground, where, besides a very large number of trained and expert mechanics, more than a thousand Chinese coolies worked.

These coolies often became very dexterous artisans.

Here, in endless ranks down the long shops, they would toil indefatigably, in the summer stripped to the waist, their brown bodies gleaming in the white light of the arc lamps or in the glow of the forges, or in the winter dressed in their loose blue quilted jackets and close caps with curious rabbits’ fur ear-lappets.

Possibly the shattered or burnt-out Tank would have to be almost entirely rebuilt, two wrecked Tanks providing, perhaps, parts enough to make one good one. Here, finally, the reconstructed Tank would be tested and sent back to the Central Stores.

Possibly it would have been reduced to a sort of “C. III.” category, and made into a Supply Tank. Possibly it would have been fitted with all the latest gadgets, and come out from its reforging a better weapon than it was originally.

For the activities of the Central Workshops were not confined to mere repair. It will be remembered how they distinguished themselves in the matter of the lightning delivery of fascines, releasing gear, and supply sledges for the Battle of Cambrai.

A large proportion, too, of the experiments which led to improvements in the design of Tanks were carried out here; for example, the long Tank and the unditching beam were of Central Workshops origin, and here the officers who fought the Tanks could have their ideas for gadgets sympathetically reviewed and put to practical proof by the band of expert engineers that Lieut.-Colonel Brocklebank had brought together. But they were more than mere experts; they were enthusiasts whose unflagging zeal had created the marvel of Central Workshops where there had been bare ploughland so short a time before.

IV

We have traced a Tank from its setting forth from home with unscratched paint through the vicissitudes of battle to its remoulding as a greatly improved machine or to its relegation to “Permanent Base.”

How would the military history run of a member of a Tank crew which had fought, say, at the Battle of Cambrai?

We have already related how the Tank Corps was chiefly recruited in early days, that is, either from among mechanical experts or from volunteers from other branches of the Service. Later men with no special qualifications were taken by direct enlistment. We will suppose, however, that 1234 Pte. John Smith got his transfer from the West Surreys when in the line in about June 1917, and that at that moment the training schools in France had no vacancies. To their great joy, therefore, Pte. Smith and his batch would be sent home for training to the Tank Depot at Wool.

Here was a huge camp where men like themselves, who had seen fighting, and also men fresh from the Recruiting Depots, were being formed into the new Tank Battalions. By July about nine of these new Battalions were in training. The men went through the usual recruits’ curriculum. First of all, drill, discipline and physical training; then individual courses in Tank Gunnery, Driving and Maintenance. Then they would go through the Signalling, Revolver and Compass Schools, the Gas and Reconnaissance Schools.

There was also here an Officer Cadet Preliminary Training Company where the same sort of instruction was given. Gunners at this time did all their firing practice with 6-pounders at the Naval School of Gunnery, Chatham, or rather, to be exact, on “H.M.S. Excellent,” Whale Island. All the other courses were gone through in and around the camp.

Practically, only individual instruction was given at Wool, and their collective and tactical training was done by the men at Bermicourt, after their arrival in France. At Wool it was reckoned that, with this important omission, nearly four months would usually be occupied in raising and training a Tank Battalion. It would, therefore, be towards the end of September that Pte. Smith found himself in France.

He was, he found, to be detailed to one of the old Battalions, and was, therefore, despatched to the Training and Reinforcement Depot, then established at Erin, and later to be moved to Le TrÉport.

Here he was attached to a Reception Company, put through a kind of examination in the subjects he had studied at Wool, but passing satisfactorily and his records being duly completed, he was issued with his kit and equipment and posted to his Company. He was soon sent to join it at an improvised training area where it was at this moment “resting” from the Battle of Ypres. It was not actually having a particularly restful time, as tactical training with the infantry was in progress, and there was more than enough night work in the programme.

This phase did not last long, however, for the Company was soon sent back to join its Battalion in the Salient, where they executed an astonishing number of moves and were considerably shelled, but never succeeded in getting into action.

After that they were hurried off to do intensive training for Cambrai. Then came the battle, in the last three days of which a very much exhausted 2nd Driver Smith was wounded in the face by a bullet splash. The trouble was not serious enough to get him to England, and on his return from an all too brief stay in a Hospital in France, he again found himself at the Depot. This time, after only a day in the Reception Company and after a medical examination, he was posted for fourteen days to the Seaside Rest Camp at Merlimont.

This Rest Camp consisted of rows and rows of rather pretty bungalows built among the sand dunes. Here both men and officers were given a very pleasant time, though they were still under military discipline and had a certain number of parades to keep. For the officers there was a comfortable club, and for the men an exceedingly well-run Y.M.C.A. hut, where there were concerts or pierrot shows almost nightly—either home-grown or imported.

Games and, in summer, swimming and bathing were great features. There is no doubt, first, that the Camp was immensely popular, and, secondly, that the Tank Corps owed a good deal of its cheerful spirit and high moral to the refreshment which the Camp afforded to many a weary body and mind.

After this fortnight by the sea Smith rejoined his Battalion, and was, with the rest of the Tank world, plunged into winter training.

V

The general organisation of the 1917–18 training, though, of course, on a much larger scale, was very much like that of the previous winter. New training centres had been established and old centres extended.

But perhaps a chronicle of the numbers who passed through these courses of instruction at Wailly, Le TrÉport, Bermicourt and Merlimont, and of the sequence in which the different Brigades took their turns at the different areas, might prove less interesting than a brief account of what was actually taught and of the sort of way a syllabus would be carried out.

In the official “Instructions for the Training of the Tank Corps in France” these are the sort of general principles we find laid down:

The following is the syllabus (slightly condensed) of a Maintenance Course for Tank Commanders:

For an interesting “Immediate Action Course,” i.e., first aid to the engine, the following directions are given to instructors:

He is given ideas for nearly fifteen ways of producing the symptom “Engine won’t start.”

For the conduct of a “Refresher” Battle Practice Course the following points are suggested for the guidance of instructors:

Very excellent courses were also arranged in the Reconnaissance Schools. But almost the most interesting of the Reconnaissance Side’s activities was the series of improvised courses—outdoor schemes, indoor practices and lectures which they arranged during the weary time while the Tank Corps “stood to quarters” through January, February and early March 1918.

The events of this time we propose to chronicle in the next chapter but one.

There had by this time been many other Tank activities which we have not at present chronicled at all. The French had trained and equipped a Tank Corps. The Americans were busy with Tanks, and a Detachment of our own Corps had fought in two engagements in Palestine.

Note to Chapter XI

Stories of the early days of Wool are related in the 6th Battalion History.

When the first few consignments of Tanks were sent to the Camp at Bovington from Wool Station the most elaborate precautions were taken to secure the machines from the eyes of the profane.

The route was guarded by military policemen marshalled by A.P.M.’s. All civilian traffic was stopped, and—as if the Tanks had been so many Lady Godivas—all the blinds in the front rooms of the farms and cottages which bordered the roads had to be drawn, and all the inhabitants were relegated to the back rooms.

This ritual was observed every time a batch of Tanks arrived.

One farmer remarked that he was delighted to help keep the secret in any manner that seemed good to the authorities, but he thought they might like to know that a day or two before a Tank had broken down and that he and his horses had helped to tow it into his yard, where it had remained for forty-eight hours.