I

We have said that August 22 had, in the original plan, been devoted to consolidation and to the moving up of guns. Only the 3rd Corps in the 4th Army area, with its twenty-four Tanks of the 4th and 5th Battalions, launched an interim attack on the Bray-Albert front.

We gained all our objectives. The 18th Division crossed the river Ancre, captured Albert by an enveloping movement from the south-east, and our line between the Somme and the Ancre was now advanced well to the east of the Bray-Albert road.

The left of the 4th Army was taken forward in conformity with the rest of our line.

The way had now been cleared for what was really the main attack, though it was not the attack in which the greatest number of Tanks were employed.

The assault opened on August 23 by a series of attacks on the whole of a thirty-three-mile front, that is to say, from our junction with the French, north of Lihons, to the spot near Mercatel, where the Hindenburg Line from QuÉant and Bullecourt joined the old Arras-Vimy defence of 1916.

The hundred Tanks which went into action on this day were nearly all fresh machines which had not fought on the 21st.

They were distributed in groups along the fronts of both the 3rd and 4th Armies.

South of the Somme, with the Australians near Chuignolles, the largest group of nearly sixty Tanks went into action. They were machines belonging to the 2nd, 8th and 13th Battalions.

The enemy had withdrawn their anti-Tank guns to the top of the ridge, which it was impossible for Tanks to climb except at one spot. Upon this one crossing-place they had trained their guns, and here several Tanks suffered direct hits.

We attacked as usual without a preliminary bombardment and met with a desperate resistance, the German machine-gunners defending their posts with extraordinary heroism, and often firing their guns till the very moment when they and their weapons were crushed to the earth by an attacking Tank.

A particularly interesting account of the action is given in the 13th Battalion History—

Altogether in this part of the battle 2000 prisoners and the important villages of Chuignolles, Herleville and Chuignes had fallen to us before nightfall.

It was the same story all along the line.

In the 3rd Army area, where altogether sixty-five Tanks fought in several fairly widely separated groups, the battle was opened rather earlier by a moonlight attack, which began just before 4 a.m. against the village of GomiÉcourt. In the 6th Corps’ domain, the 3rd Division was supported by ten Mark IV. Tanks of the 12th Battalion. They attacked GomiÉcourt, carried it triumphantly and captured 500 prisoners. To the north of them, in the second phase, the Guards Division, with four Mark IV.’s, captured the village of Hamelincourt. At Bihucourt, just beyond Achiet-le-Grand, 300 of the enemy were forced by Tanks to surrender to the infantry. In one Whippet Tank, the officer and the sergeant were both killed, and the private drove his Tank into action by himself, when a target presented itself, locking his back axle and firing his Hotchkiss gun.

Later in the morning, some of the Whippets of the 6th Battalion were operating with the infantry of the 4th Corps to the east of Courcelles. It was suddenly noticed that the artillery barrage table had been altered, and that the rate of progress of the barrage was now 100 yards in four minutes, that is to say, considerably slower than it had been originally intended. The Tanks were therefore obliged to manoeuvre and wheel about, in order to let the barrage keep ahead. They were constantly under anti-Tank gun fire at this time. Seven of the Whippets, however, did not wait, but passed through our barrage, and getting beyond it, surprised and scattered large numbers of the enemy who had taken cover. As the Germans ran, the Whippet machine-gunners were able to inflict heavy casualties upon them. Meanwhile, these seven Tanks were played upon by a perfect hail of machine-gun fire, especially from the direction of Achiet-le-Grand. Changing their direction, they advanced upon the troublesome machine-guns and succeeded in cutting off several hundred of the enemy north of the village, who had been holding up an attack by our infantry. The Whippets headed and drove them neatly towards our lines, where the King’s Royal Rifles immediately took them prisoners. Achiet-le-Grand was captured with extraordinary small losses.

Owing to the better weather conditions, aeroplane co-operation was much more successful throughout the day than it had been on August 21.

Messages dropped by aeroplanes were invaluable in keeping the whole straggling action in hand, and in giving information, by means of which commanders could send up reserves where they were wanted.

The following will give the reader an idea of the sort of information that the aeroplanes were constantly furnishing.

The counter-Tank gun work done on this day was also exceedingly successful, the following is the report of an action fought by a counter Gun Machine:

Altogether we had every reason to be satisfied by the events of the day, and we prepared to continue the action with all possible vigour on the morrow.

II

But by August 24, there were only fifty-three Tanks of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Brigades fit for action, and nearly all the units which went in on this day were motley collections from various Battalions. One composite unit of the 11th Battalion fought a very successful action in conjunction with the 4th Corps, in spite of the fact that their orders reached them late and that they had an approach march of six or seven miles. They managed to catch up the infantry and all their objectives were taken.

In the course of the afternoon, Tanks belonging to the 9th Battalion attacked and met with very stubborn resistance opposite Mory Copse, where the Hindenburg Line was strongly held. Here more than one enemy garrison refused to surrender and had all to be killed. One party of about sixty was accounted for by four rounds of 6-pounder case shot.

One machine, which was doing a piece of reconnaissance work near Croisilles later in the day, had a particularly exciting experience. The crew was forced to evacuate the Tank on account of the phosphorus bombs with which the enemy had drenched it. Before leaving it, the officer in command turned the head of his machine towards home and started the Tank on its lonely way; then, almost choked with the fumes, he got out and walked between the front horns of the moving machine till the inside of the Tank was clear of phosphorus. All the while, he and the machine were completely surrounded by the enemy. In the end, he got his Tank home in safety.

On the 4th Army front, five Tanks of the 1st Battalion attacked at dawn with the 47th Division in an effort to recapture Happy Valley, which had been lost by us on the previous afternoon. The attack was exceedingly successful, and besides our original objective, the large village of Bray was added to our gains.

For the next week, the fighting consisted of a series of small local engagements for the most part improvised on the spot by the Divisions concerned.

Tanks fought every day in one part of the line or another, and every day we forced a stubbornly resisting enemy further and further back.

We propose only to give a short account of most of the actions of this period.

On August 25, about forty-two Tanks were again in action in little “blobs,” strung out on the fronts of the 4th and 6th Corps. Tanks from the 3rd, 7th, and 10th Battalions went into action, the 9th Battalion attacking with the Guards Division, north of Mory. Owing to the dense mist, co-operation between Tanks and infantry was phenomenally difficult and the attack was not very successful. During the engagement one Tank had five of its crew wounded by anti-Tank rifle bullets.

On the Canadian Corps front an attack was carried out on August 26, near Fampoux and Neuville-Vitasse, with the help of Tanks of the 9th and 11th Battalions.

Near Monchy several Tanks were knocked out, the crews joining the infantry to repel a local counter-attack. The sergeant of one crew hearing that the enemy had captured his Tank, collected his men and charged forward to recover it, arriving at one sponson door of the machine as the enemy were scrambling out of the opposite one.

The Tank Corps records characterise August 27 as “an uneventful day.” Fourteen Tanks of the 9th and 11th Battalions were used for mopping up points of resistance.

On the 28th no Tanks went into action at all.

But the 29th was more memorable, for on this day the enemy evacuated Bapaume, and in a minor attack on FrÉmicourt Lieutenant C.H. Sewell won the V.C.

It was a very small engagement south-west of BeugnÂtre, in which only four Whippet Tanks took part.

The following is extracted from the report of the engagement sent in by Lieutenant Sewell’s Commanding Officer:

The rescued men were emphatic in their praise of the gallant manner in which Lieutenant Sewell had saved them from a peculiarly horrible form of death.

On the 30th, the 3rd Division was to undertake operations designing to seize the villages of Ecoust and LongÂtte with the trench system beyond. Six Tanks of the 12th Battalion were to operate, and in anticipation of their orders had already moved forward to the head of the SensÉe Valley. Unfortunately their orders did not reach the Battalion till 9 p.m. on the night before the battle. The night was intensely dark, and as luck would have it, the Reconnaissance Officer who alone knew the ground had been recalled to England that day, and there still remained nearly four miles by the shortest route before the Tanks reached the jumping-off place. It was clear the machines would have their work cut out if they were to reach the place in time. The whole operation was dogged by misfortune. The taping party took the wrong direction in the pitch dark, and when at last the Tanks reached the point where the infantry guides were to lead them the rest of the way, the guide for the left-hand section lost himself and the Tanks completely before they had gone half the distance. For an hour the Tanks and their conductor wandered about the devastated wastes about Ecoust. The guide could not even point out on the map where the infantry were formed up. At last the Section Commander went forward by himself and managed to discover the whereabouts of the front line and his own position, but only to find he was nearly a mile away and it wanted five minutes to “zero.” It was impossible that he should reach the battle in time, and he withdrew his Section according to instructions as he was in an exposed position. Thus the unfortunate infantry went over the top unaccompanied by a single Tank. The assault was a complete failure and the infantry suffered heavy casualties.

III

But we had reached a stage of the battle when it was clear that another considerable effort on our part would be well worth the making.

The enemy’s resistance showed him passionately anxious to gain time. He retreated with extreme reluctance.

It was the moment to redouble our blows.

The actual small operations carried out by the Tanks during these last few days were only a minor consideration. Tanks and infantry were busy preparing for a considerable attack which was to take place on September 2. On this day, the whole vast battle reached its zenith and we broke the famous Drocourt-QuÉant Line which we had failed to reach in April 1917. This line was a switch which joined on to the Hindenburg system. Though we had had scant time for elaborate preparation, the attack was to be practically a full-dress affair, eighty-one Tanks being put in on a comparatively small area. We were expecting a heavy resistance and our dispositions were very carefully made. The order of our attack was as follows, starting from the south:

With the 4th Corps near Villers-au-Flos the 7th Tank Battalion.

With the 6th Corps near Lagnicourt and Moreuil the 12th and 6th Battalions of the 1st Brigade, and against the actual Drocourt-QuÉant Line with the Canadians and the 17th Corps as many Tanks as the 9th, 11th and 14th Battalions of the 3rd Brigade could muster (about forty in all).

The battle was to be fought in the intricate country of the SensÉe Valley, and active operations were taking place throughout the time of preparation for the renewed battle. It was, therefore, under conditions of exceptional difficulty that the Tanks assembled, some of them being obliged to travel along our front across areas which were far from healthy. The enemy’s defences had been built in the Spring of 1917. They were remarkable for extremely strong belts of wire, and we expected that every effort would be made by the Germans to hold these defences at all cost.

Zero was at 5.30 a.m. and a clear dawn was just breaking when we launched our attack.

On the Lagnicourt sector, Tanks of the 12th Battalion immediately came under tremendous fire from field guns and anti-Tank rifles.

As it grew lighter, we discovered that a number of the heavy rifles were being fired with great effect from a derelict Whippet. This nest was soon dealt with by a male Tank.

One female Tank in this sector fired over 4000 rounds of S.A.A., until, having all its Lewis guns except one disabled, and five of its crew severely wounded, it endeavoured to return, its Commander, Lieutenant Saunders, alternately driving, working the brakes and firing the remaining gun. As the Tank was thus being successfully withdrawn, a direct hit set it on fire and the wounded men were rescued with great difficulty.

It was not far from Lagnicourt that the Whippets of the 6th Battalion operated.

They were commanded by Lieut.-Colonel West, of whose action on August 21 we have already told the story:

The infantry had been inspired to redoubled efforts by Colonel West’s example and the hostile attack was defeated. He had originally come to the Battalion as a Company Commander, and had been awarded the D.S.O. for his work in the Arras battle. Between August 8 and September 2, he was awarded the M.C., a bar to his D.S.O., and, for his last action, the V.C.

Elsewhere the fighting was not so heavy, and on the whole we met with less opposition than we had expected.

In the Canadian sector, the armoured cars were working in close conjunction with Tank Corps aeroplanes. At one moment a number of cars were going along a road, when four machines were hit by shells from hidden batteries. Their accompanying aeroplanes, however, immediately attacked the German guns so vigorously that the crews of the disabled cars, though completely surrounded by the enemy, were able to escape capture.

By noon, on the Canadian section, the whole elaborate maze of wire, trenches and strong points, which constituted the Drocourt-QuÉant Line, was in our hands, but elsewhere there was hard fighting until dusk, especially on the reverse slopes of Dury Ridge. Dury itself we took, capturing the Town Major. Our task had not, however, we considered, been quite completed that day, and next morning Tanks and infantry prepared to “tidy up” the line, especially Maricourt Wood.

But long before zero hour, at 5.20, a glare of burning dumps in the east seemed to show that the enemy were already withdrawing, and, in fact, when the Tanks went over just after dawn, they encountered scarcely any opposition at all, save a perfunctory fire from rearguard machine-gunners. Small parties of the enemy were found in dug-outs, waiting to be captured. His infantry and guns were already well on their way back to the Canal du Nord.

IV

The Second Battle of Arras was over and we had pierced the renowned Drocourt-QuÉant Line and had delivered a blow from which the enemy’s moral never quite recovered.

Since August 21, in all, some 500 Tanks had been in action, and except for one or two minor failures every attack had culminated in a cheap success. We had pushed forward for fifteen or twenty miles along about thirty miles of front.

But the Tank Brigades were, all of them, in such urgent need of refitting, of new machines and of fresh crews, that after the 3rd they had to be withdrawn into G.H.Q. reserve, and, “faint with pursuing,” were unable to take any further part in the battle for just over a fortnight.

Even so, that fortnight was spent, not in rest, but in feverish preparation of the most arduous kind. We had begun to practise the fitting of Cribs, for we were getting back to the Hindenburg Line.

The other dogs of war were in full cry. The Tanks did not propose to waste time.

By September 18, the 5th Brigade was able to put a few machines into the field. They belonged to the 2nd Battalion, which had not fought since the earlier stages of the last battle.

V

This time the Tanks were to be put in the south, in the 4th Army area.

There were to be about twenty Tanks, and they were to work with the Australians and the 9th and 3rd Corps on a wide front between Epehy and Villeret.

The area attacked had a front of about fourteen miles, thus a Battalion of twenty Tanks could merely be employed against certain known strong points.

Eight Tanks were allotted to the 3rd Corps on the left, eight Tanks in the centre were to work with the 1st and 4th Divisions of the Australian Corps.

On the 9th Corps sector on the right, four Tanks were allotted to the 6th Division.

The night had been fine, but when zero hour came (5.20) it was raining heavily, and all day the weather was dull and cloudy, visibility being often bad enough to make the Tank Commanders glad of their compasses.

During the attack two Tanks belonging to “C” Company fought an extremely gallant action.

On the 9th Corps front progress was slow, but by the end of the day we held Ronssoy and Hargicourt.

A good idea is given of the minor mechanical difficulties of this part of the campaign in the 2nd Battalion History:

We did not renew the advance till the 21st, when nine Tanks helped the attack on the 3rd Corps front against the Knoll and Guillemont and Quennemont Farms. Two of these Tanks were of the Mark V. Star pattern and carried forward infantry machine-gunners.

But we were up against a desperate enemy resistance, machine-guns firing armour-piercing bullets, anti-Tank rifles, field guns and land mines all being used against us.

The attack did not succeed in gaining us the coveted positions, and we were to pay dearly for this failure.

Again two days elapsed, and meanwhile (on the 20th) the 8th, 16th and 13th Battalions, and the 5th Supply Co. had been brought forward.

There was a big enterprise in view.

This hitherto more or less isolated sector of attack was to be “federated” with the new vast projected attack which was to be made by no fewer than three Armies, their blows timed to fall in rapid succession.

Meanwhile a piece of ground which we coveted remained in enemy hands.

We were anxious to hold the high ground north of Selency and to clear up the formidable Quadrilateral south of Fresnoy.

The 9th Corps, therefore, was to attack on a two-division front with the aid of twenty Tanks of the newly arrived 13th Battalion.

The plans were discussed at a conference held on September 22, and the Tanks brought up to the assembly points by skeleton crews that same night.

The fighting crews were brought up by lorry the following afternoon, according to the wise practice which was now beginning to be generally employed, whenever there was enough personnel to make it possible. The final approach march was begun at 8.30 p.m. the night of the 23rd.

Anti-Tank guns were extremely active throughout the operation.

Three Tanks, which with their infantry penetrated right into the Quadrilateral, were all put out of action by a single gun.

Altogether, the Tanks suffered a 50 per cent. loss of machines in this action.

However, we won some of the points of observation that were needed for the next attack, and though we failed to hold the Quadrilateral we had practically outflanked and sterilised it by the end of the day.

So ended the little Battle of Epehy.

Our advance had not been a long one, for the enemy had contested every yard with a desperate valour.

His losses had been enormous, and this minor battle added no less than 12,000 prisoners and 100 guns to the Allied “bag.”

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