part0039

The first comprises the fighting in the devastated area, the second the breaking through of the Hindenburg system of trenches, and the third open warfare east of this system. Each of these periods will be dealt with in a separate chapter, in which most of the detail of battle preparation will be omitted so as to avoid a repetition of descriptions of work which had by now been reduced to a routine in the Tank Corps.

Towards the end of the battle of Amiens it became apparent that the enemy was commencing to withdraw his troops in the Pusieux-Serre area opposite the Third Army front, and that, in all probability, this retirement was only part of a general withdrawal on the entire front south of the Scarpe. It was, therefore, decided on August 13 that the Third Army should prepare an attack on the German front north of the Somme, whilst the Fourth Army continued to press the enemy south of this river. Consequent on this decision the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 10th, 14th, and 15th Tank Battalions were withdrawn from the Fourth Army area, and concentrated in that of the Third. On August 15 to these battalions were added the 7th, 11th, and 12th of the 1st Tank Brigade. These moves necessitated a complete reshuffling of Tank Brigades, which on August 19 were constituted as follows:

The VIth, IVth, and Vth Corps of the Third Army were to attack on the line Beaucourt-sur-Ancre—Moyenneville, a frontage of 17,000 yards, with the object of driving the enemy eastwards across the Arras-Bapaume road and of forcing him from the Somme area. Tanks were only to operate between Moyenneville and Bucquoy, as the ground south of this frontage was unsuited to tank movement; for this reason no tanks were allotted to the Vth Corps.

Owing to the little time available and the necessity for maintaining secrecy it was not possible to carry out any training with the divisions of the Third Army; many of these, however, had previously attended demonstrations at Bermicourt, to supplement which notes were now issued and as many lectures as possible given prior to this attack.

The battle of Bapaume, which began on August 21, is of particular interest in that it was the first attack launched against a new tactical system of defence recently adopted by the enemy, namely, the holding of his reserves well in rear of a lightly held outpost line. In conformity with the principles of this system of defence in depth the Germans had withdrawn their guns behind the Albert-Arras railway; this eventually complicated the tank attack, for had they remained forward, as so frequently they had heretofore done, they would have been surprised and captured during the first phase of the battle; as it was, they accounted for many of our machines during the third phase.

Zero hour was at 4.55 a.m. The Mark IV battalion moved forward and successfully cleared the first objective and pushed on towards the second. Once again the attack was a surprise, perhaps not so much through it being unexpected as through the inability of the Germans to meet A, especially as their guns had been withdrawn. To illustrate how complete this surprise was it is only necessary to mention that candles were found still burning in the trenches when we crossed them, and papers and equipment scattered broadcast gave evidence of the hurried flight of the enemy. The second echelon and the Whippets had, however, a far more difficult task to accomplish. The Albert-Arras railway had, previous to the attack, been turned into a strongly defended line of machine-gun nests covered by the German guns east of it. Unfortunately the thick ground mist, which had shielded the approach of the first echelon, now began to lift; this enabled the German artillery observers to direct a deadly fire on the tanks, in fact, each individual tank became the centre of a zone of bullets and bursting shells. Avoiding these zones, our infantry pushed on with few casualties.

During this day’s fighting many parties of the enemy, some over a hundred strong, surrendered en bloc directly the tanks were seen approaching. Such action on the part of the German infantry was becoming a stereotyped procedure in all tank attacks. On the 21st, of the 190 tanks which took part in the attack, 37 received direct hits.

On August 22 the IIIrd Corps launched its attack on a front of some 10,000 yards with complete success. The tanks, which had been instructed by the IIIrd Corps to proceed in rear of the infantry, in actual fact led the attack the whole way, effecting a penetration of about 4,000 yards. All objectives were gained, and at the end of the day our line ran east of Albert, east of Meaulte, east of the Happy Valley, and through the western outskirts of Bray-sur-Somme .

On the following day the attack of the IIIrd Corps was continued in conjunction with that of the Third Army to the north and the Australian Corps to the south. The IIIrd Corps captured Tara and Usna hills, employing six tanks of the 1st Tank Battalion in this action. On the Australian front the thirty-six machines of the 5th Tank Brigade deployed and led the infantry right on to their objective, which was successfully occupied. On reaching this the machines of the 2nd and 13th Battalions exploited north of Chuignolles with the 3rd Australian Brigade, whilst those of the 8th Battalion rallied. During this attack the enemy put up a stout resistance, his machine-gunners fighting with great spirit and in many cases continuing to fire their guns until run over by the tanks. Curiously enough, in comparison with this, on the previous day the enemy’s machine-gunners on the IIIrd Corps front scarcely put up any fight at all, and when asked why they had not done so replied: “Oh! it would not have been any good. ”

“At 4.25 a.m. on the 23rd instant, I proceeded with my female tank ‘Mabel’ (No. 9382) in front of the infantry. I made a very zigzag course to the wood in the south-west edge of the village of Chuignolles, where I encountered an anti-tank gun which was eventually knocked out by the male tank commanded by 2nd Lieut. Simmonds, who was operating on my right. I then worked up the south side of the village, heavily machine-gunning all the crops and copses, and dislodged several machine-gun crews of the enemy. I next came back to the village and mopped up the enemy on the outskirts until it was clear. Then, emerging from the smoke of two shells which dropped short, I found myself in the midst of a battery of whizz-bangs. The gunners of this battery I at once proceeded to obliterate with good success, after which I came behind another battery and proceeded with the same operation. Then I started to take infantry over to the high ground south of Square wood in L.35d, when I was called back by an Australian colonel to attend to some M.G. nests which had been left in the centre of the village; here I mopped up twelve M.G. nests and then started to catch up the remainder of the tanks and the barrage, but while at the top of a very steep bank, approximately R.10.b.30.50, I received a direct hit from a whizz-bang on the front horns, which sent me out of control to the bottom of the bank, where I found it had broken one plate of my left track. After repairing this, the barrage having finished, and as tanks were coming back to rally, I brought my tank back to the rallying-point at Amy wood.”

In the Third Army the attack was re-opened on August 23 ‘by a moonlight operation, starting at 4 a.m., carried out against the village of Gomiecourt. The 3rd Division, supported by ten Mark IV tanks of the 12th Battalion, attacked this village and carried it. A little later the Guards Division with four Mark IV.s captured the village of Hamelin-court.

At 11 a.m. the VIth Corps, assisted by fifteen Whippets, attacked in the direction of Ervillers-Behagnies-Sapignies, and by noon were east of the Bapaume-Arras road. Near Sapignies heavy machine-gun fire was encountered, which prevented our infantry moving forward; notwithstanding this the Whippets continued their advance. In one machine the officer and sergeant were killed; the remaining man, however, after placing the corpses in a shell-hole, continued single-handed to follow the other tanks, and when a target offered itself, locked his back axle and fired his Hotchkiss gun. Although Sapignies and Behagnies were not captured the operation was successful in securing a large number of prisoners. This attack materially assisted that of the IVth Corps on Achiet-le-Grand and Bihucourt, which were captured by the 37th Division and six Mark V tanks of the 1st Tank Brigade .

At 2 a.m. on the IVth Corps front four Mark IV machines assisted the 37th Division west of Sapignies; later on, seven Mark IV tanks and nineteen Whippets attacked with the New Zealand and 37th Divisions on Grevillers, Biefvillers, and Loupart wood, which were captured. On the front of the 56th Division a bloody engagement began at 7 a.m. for the ownership of the line St. Leger-Henin-sur-Cojeul, eleven tanks of the 11th Battalion co-operating after an approach march of 10,000 yards. All objectives were gained. At 2 p.m. this attack was continued, two tanks leading the infantry north of Croisilles as far as the Hindenburg Line, which was strongly held. Both these machines had particularly exciting experiences. One received a direct hit which rendered the officer commanding it unconscious; recovering his senses, he at once took charge of his machine and pushed on. In the other the crew were forced to evacuate the tank on account of the enemy surrounding it with phosphorus bombs; before leaving it the officer in command turned the tank’s head towards home and then, getting out, walked between the front horns of the machine until the fumes had cleared away. All this time the tank was surrounded by the enemy. This attack failed; it is interesting, however, to note that one tank of the 11th Battalion covered during this operation 40,000 yards in some twenty-six hours.

At 3.30 p.m. five tanks of the 9th Battalion took part in an attack on the line Mory copse—Camouflage copse. At first there was not much opposition, but after Mory copse was reached the enemy put up a stout resistance and, refusing to surrender, was killed almost to a man, one party of about sixty being put out of action by four rounds of 6-pounder case shot.

On the evening of August 24 the 3rd Tank Brigade was transferred from the Third Army to the Canadian Corps of the First Army for the forthcoming attack on the First Army front, which was to initiate the Second Battle of Arras. This entailed a lengthy night march of 29,000 yards from Blaireville and Boisleux-au-Mont to Moyenneville, thence to Achicourt.

On August 25 minor tank attacks were carried out on the IVth Corps front against Favreuil, Avesnes, Thilloy, and Sapignies, and on the 26th tanks of the 9th Battalion, some of which had moved 37,000 yards since the night of the 24th-25th, attacked with the Guards Division north of Mory. This attack was not a great success, due to the dense mist, which made co-operation almost impossible and the maintenance of direction most difficult. During this engagement one tank had five members of its crew wounded by anti-tank rifle bullets.

On the Canadian Corps’ front an attack was carried out opposite Fampoux and Neuville-Vitasse, the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions operating with tanks of the 9th and 11th Divisions against Wancourt, Guemappe, and Monchy-le-Preux. 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.

On the following day, the 27th, operations continued east of Monchy-le-Preux, and in the Gucmappe-Cherisy area, but ceased altogether as far as tanks were concerned until the 29th. On this day minor tank operations were carried out on the Third Army front south-west of Beugnatre by the 1st Brigade, the enemy having evacuated Thilloy and Bapaume. This Brigade, on the 30th, co-operated with the 5th British and New Zealand Divisions against Fremicourt, Beugny, Bancourt, Haplincourt, and Velu wood, whilst the 2nd Tank Brigade attacked Vaux-Vraucourt. All these attacks were successful.

On the last day of August 1918, probably the most decisive month in the whole war, nine Mark IV.s of the 12th Battalion and four Whippets of the 6th Battalion attacked the Longatte trench, Moreuil switch, and Vraucourt trench, taking all these objectives, and on the following day, September 1, Whippets of the 6th Battalion completed the above operations by establishing the infantry on the slopes east of Vaux-Vraucourt.

The Second Battle of Arras reached its zenith on September 2 when the famous Drocourt-Queant line, which we had failed to reach in April 1917, was broken. Starting from the south the 1st Tank Brigade operated with the 42nd and 5th Divisions against Beugny and Villars-au-Flos. To the north of this attack the 2nd Tank Brigade assisted in the VIth Corps operations against Moreuil, Lagnicourt, and Morchies. This attack was made in conjunction with those of the Canadian and XVIIth Corps against the Drocourt-Queant line. This line was attacked by the 1st and 4th Canadian Divisions and the 4th Division, together with as many tanks as the 9th, 11th, and 14th Battalions of the 3rd Tank Brigade could muster. The assembly of these machines was difficult owing not only to the intricate nature of the Sensé valley but to the fact that active operations were taking place throughout these preparations.

The Drocourt-Queant line, built in the spring of 1917, was protected by immensely strong belts of wire entanglement, and it was expected that every effort would be made on the part of the enemy to hold these defences at all cost; nevertheless, on the whole, less opposition was encountered than had been anticipated. Except for anti-tank rifle fire, which was especially noticeable at Villers-les-Cagnicourt, the tanks met little opposition. It is estimated that in this attack one company of tanks alone destroyed over seventy hostile machine guns, the German gunners surrendering to the tanks as they approached.

Since August 21, in all, 511 tanks had been in action, and except for one or two minor failures every attack had culminated in a cheap success—cheap as regards our own infantry casualties, especially so when it is remembered that during the fortnight which comprised the battle of Bapaume and the Second Battle of Arras no fewer than 470 guns and 53,000 prisoners were captured. Thus in a little less than one month the German Army had lost to the First, Third, and Fourth British Armies 870 guns and 75,000 men without counting killed and wounded.