On 27 September a British attack took place at the Canal du Nord. Fifteen Mark IV tanks crossed the canal with the Canadians. The 15th Battalion had twenty-six tanks and reached Flesquières. The 11th Battalion also took part with twelve tanks.

On 28 September over 500 tanks were used on an attack between Reims and Verdun supported by the French and Americans. The vast majority of the tanks, nearly 500, were Renaults some of which were manned by American crews. On 29 September the Fourth British Army attacked with nearly 200 tanks. This was against the St Quentin Canal and the Hindenburg Line and included Australian and American troops.

When Patton’s tanks went into action there was no way he was going to sit back and wait for them to return. He went forward with them despite being ordered not to. When the infantry following the tanks ran into problems Patton took command and drove them on into battle. He was eventually wounded in the leg which ended his war.

The Manchester Guardian reported on the use of the American tanks on 8 October. They had suffered fierce resistance as they attacked the Krimhilde line. The American tank commander told the correspondent how the tanks had preceded the infantry into the attack. The Germans had fired on them with antitank rifles and field guns at point blank range but despite this the tanks continued to move forward.

There was a strange meeting of British and German tanks on 8 October at Maison Neuve. Both sides at first thought that the other tanks were on their side as the German ones were Mark IVs. They finally realised they were enemy tanks and in the battle a number of the tanks were knocked out on both sides.

There was an interesting follow-up to the German flooding story in the Manchester Guardian and in The Observer of 29 September with the headline ‘A BRIDGE OF TANKS’. According to the report, an attack on the Canal du Nord was led by older tanks that would be exposed to the enemy fire and then driven into the canal. The newer faster tanks would then follow and use the older tanks as bridges to cross the canal. Volunteers were needed for the older tanks and for every one crew needed, ten volunteered. They were eventually chosen by lots. The old tanks were described as being covered with scars and wounds gained on the Somme and at Cambrai as they moved forward for the last time. There was no information on how the crews got out before they drowned. Perhaps this was why they were manned by volunteers.

By October 1918 the Germans had come up with a new idea for stopping the tanks. Some of these were seen at Le Catelet. The infantry found a number of small mines described as being about the size of a kitchen kettle with the spout and handle taken off. One wrecked tank had its bottom blown out by one of these mines.

An order by General Ludendorff printed in The Times in October stated that mines were not enough to stop the tanks. He wanted barricades to support the mines. His idea was that these barricades should be similar to the buffers used to stop trains. Concrete barriers could also be used along with deep pits. The general commanding the German engineer corps thought that the barricades should be built in lines, one behind the other. Solitary mines buried here and there were not enough to stop the tanks as they may not be touched by the tank tracks. Once the tanks were stopped by barriers then they should be fired on by the artillery. The report said that some of these defences were already in place.

It seems that even as late as October 1918 there were still disputes going on about the organisation of the tanks amongst the Allies. A letter sent to Major General Sackville-West on 7 October discussed the Fontainebleau tank school in France where it appears that there was some dispute between the tank experts and the army as to how a senior British officer should be based at the school. The school was a French one and Elles believed that whoever was sent there would be dominated by General Estienne and his staff who were running the school. The position of British officers there was a difficult one and Elles seemed to think that it would be better to leave a junior officer there just to run demonstrations.