position in Delville Wood by securing
the ground north and east of it; on their
right were the Guards, who, with a
division of old Regulars, were to go
forward from Ginchy against Les-
boeufs and Morval; the last division
on the right of the British line was
made up of London Territorials, op-
erating in Bouleaux Wood and acting
as a defensive flank.
The surprise element in the attack of
mid-September lay in the intensity
and character of the action. The
enemy suspected that an attack was
pending, but he was misled with
regard to the location by the intro-
ductory rush upon the Wunderwerk.
His own assault upon the British left
wing, timed two hours before the
Allies were to start forward, was
quickly checked. It resulted in the
Canadians' capturing many prisoners in
their own trench-lines before crossing
into the German lines.
A GROTESQUE NEW INVENTION APPEAR S
ON THE FIELD.
German aviators, on September 14,
when they caught sight of a herd of
fantastic mechanical monsters, made a
discovery which gave some hint of the
remarkable innovation to be introduced
to the world on the following day.
Whispers of a mysterious war engine
of some sort had been in circulation on
both sides, but the nature of the
engine had been carefully shrouded in
secrecy. When the "tanks" (so-called
because the name explained nothing
with regard to their structure or use)
lumbered into the foreground of battle,
the shock of astonishment was un-
softened by any preparation. The
first gasp of amazement was followed
by shouts of hilarity or of terror. And
in this reaction lay a part of the use-
537
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
fulness of the new armored cars. The
spirit of the British fighters was
braced into greater enthusiasm and
dash by the appearance of an element
of comedy upon the grim page of
warfare. A corporal of the Canadian
Division wrote that a tank's motions
"would draw gales of laughter from a
circus crowd."
Nothing obstructed it; a supernatural
force seemed to drive it onwards.
Someone in the trenches cried 'the
devil comes' and that word ran down
the line like lightning. Suddenly
tongues of fire licked out of the armored
hide of the iron caterpillar, shells
whistled over our heads, and a terrible
concert of machine-gun orchestra filled
BRITISH HOWITZERS DIRECTED BY AIRPLANE
The howitzer on the left has the muzzle tilted upward ready to fire over the slight elevation in front. The one in the
middle of the picture is being loaded. Du >outs for the men and shelters for the ammunition are excavated in the
bank, and strengthened by logs and sandbags. Both guns are concealed by boughs.
The effect upon the German soldiers,
of the unaccustomed danger rolling
down upon them was to awaken terror,
in some cases almost superstitious
terror, and so drag down their already
wavering morale. A protest against
the "cruelty" of the invention arose
from the German Command and the
German press. A correspondent for
the Diisseldorfer General- Anzeiger, in
giving an account of its first approach,
calls the machine a "devil's trick,"
"a mystery which oppressed and
shackled the powers." He goes on:
"The monster approached slowly, hob-
bling, moving from side to side, rock-
ing and pitching, but it came nearer.
538
the air. The mysterious creature had
surrendered its secret, and sense re-
turned with it, and toughness and
defiance, as the English waves of
infantry surged up behind the devil's
chariot."
SOME DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR APPEAR-
ANCE AND ACTIONS.
The aspect of the tanks was so
utterly extraordinary and grotesque
th,at writers, in describing them, used
perforce humorous or fantastic terms.
They were like "toads of vast size
emerging from the primeval slime in
the twilight of the. world's dawn,"
"inhuman shapes crawling"; or "gi-
gantic slugs, spitting fire from their
THE TANKS MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE IN THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
Somehow, in spite of the fact that they were "neither silent nor inconspicuous" the tanks were kept miraculously
secret until their debut on September 15, 1916. Their fantastic appearance acted as tonic to the British fighters
and brought terror to the foe. This is one of the early types of British tanks.
Not only on the surface of the ground, among the wreckage of buildings and machinery, but in trenches and in
underground fortifications as well, the stubborn conflict over the su?ar refinery at Courcelette was fought. A
tank, the "Creme de Menthe," brought timely aid, and after the position had been won the Canadians pressed
on farther. Nowhere in the whole war were the fighting qualities of the Canadians shown to better advantage.
539
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
mottled sides." They were spoken of
as trudging, strolling, waddling, grunt-
ing, "nosing heavily into the soft
earth," sitting poised, straddling, or
sprawling across trenches, "dipping
and plunging like a dismasted Dutch
lugger in a storm-tossed sea." One
was represented as "heaving itself on
jerkily like a dragon with indigestion,
but very fierce" ; one as acting the part
of "a kind of chaperon" for the in-
fantry. Their "uncanny nonchalance"
was referred to. Their machinery was
characterized as "internal organs."
These latest and only really satis-
factory armored cars were officially
known as the Machine Gun Corps,
Heavy Section. They were a British
adaptation of the American caterpillar
tractor, provided with armor and
armament. As the tank did not de-
pend upon wheels for locomotion, and
the wedge-shaped front presented a
surface that was not liable to damage,
this was a form of armored car far less
vulnerable than the earlier ones. By
means of the caterpillar constructions
on the sides, the machine made its
way over trenches and ditches, crawled
up the sides of shell-holes, and pushed
across the roughest terrain. Walls,
wire-entanglements, tree-trunks, and
other obstructions were charged and
laid low; therefore, the tank was of
great service in clearing the way for
an infantry attack. Dubbed "His
Majesty's Landships," the individual
tanks were given names such as are
bestowed upon ships of the navy.
Collectively, they were called "Wil-
lies," "Humming Birds," and other
derisive names.
It can be seen that, in spite of their
protective paint, in browns and greens
and yellows, these giant creatures
could not easily be concealed. They
were "neither silent nor inconspicu-
ous." Yet, parked in secluded spots
back of the lines, they were somehow
kept almost an absolute secret until
the day of their debut.
THE FIRST DAY ON WHICH THE TANKS
OPERATED.
A bombardment in which the bat-
teries exhibited great skill and exact-
ness of performance went on from
540
September 12 until 6:20 on the morn-
ing of the fifteenth, when the tanks for
the first time moved forth upon the
fighting field in advance of the charging
infantry. We have already seen how
the Canadians were given an oppor-
tunity by the German rush into their
trenches to dispose of a number of the
enemy before the hour appointed for
the Allied advance. Then, when the
time arrived, they went forward
promptly and with sweeping force
that carried them far along into the
enemy front. This was their first real
offensive and they were determined
that nothing should stop them. First,
the trenches around Mouquet Farm
were taken. Then the struggle was
transferred to the sugar refinery near
Courcelette, where trenches and sub-
terranean works were stubbornly de-
fended. Here, as in other places where
some of the German trenches were
arranged so as to sweep the lines with
a flanking fire, the assistance of a
tank was effectual in hastening the
advance. In this case it was the
"Cre"me de Menthe" which came
creeping along, cumbrously, a bit
unsteadily, yet surely, surmounting
obstacles with a lurch and a swing, and
lifting itself athwart the troublesome
trench where it quickly controlled the
German guns by pouring its own fire
into them on the right and the left.
When this position had been won and
the attack had pushed to the outskirts
of Courcelette, the Corps Commander,
Sir Julian Byng, did not hesitate to go
on and assault the town itself. In this,
too, the Canadians were successful.
They did not stop to dig themselves in
until they had reached a line well to
the north of Courcelette. Then they
staunchly held what they had taken,
repelling a number of counter-attacks.
They took, in all, about 1300 prisoners.
Men from every part of Canada were
included in the 4th, 5th, and 6th
Canadian Brigades, the troops that
achieved this glorious success. Among
them were many French Canadians
who thus had a share in rescuing the
land of their ancestors. That they had
no laggard spirit for the work is
shown by an incident that is told of
*IlmN
lisaOllg
v 0(3 w J>.M E S*l
J4 > u!<).2 01
SeSi3.. mu-^a
Sailll?!!
541
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
one of them who leaped forward to
haul in a machine gun, calling: "Come
on boys! There are lots of these things
lying about; let's go and get them."
He got the gun over, then fell, shot
dead.
SIR JULIAN BYNG
General Sir Julian Byng, who had received command
of an army corps during the Dardanelles expedition,
led the Canadian Corps in the Battle of the Somme.
THE GREAT WORK OF THE CANADIANS
AT THIS TIME.
"Courcelette was to the Second
Canadian Division what Ypres was to
the First Division. It was a magnifi-
cent and brilliant offensive." At this
time the First Division was occupied
in making numerous subsidiary at-
tacks, involving hard fighting and
many casualties, attacks which
counted in helping the greater offen-
sives to reach their objectives.
While this was happening on the
left side of the Albert-Bapaume road,
to the right at Martinpuich there was
stern fighting for the mastery of a
maze of trenches, dugouts, and fortified
shell-holes. With tanks for protection
and support, the Scottish infantry,
who had been forced back a little
542
after their first rush, succeeded in
driving their way through the village,
with a showing of about 700 prisoners
as a result of the day's work. One
hundred of these had surrendered to a
single tank. Courcelette and Martin-
puich, although they had not been
positively included in the original
program for the advance, furnished the
most rapid and striking conquests of
the day.
THE STURDY BAVARIANS ARE DRIVEN
FROM HIGH WOOD.
In the northern end of High Wood,
the Germans were still on the highest
ground, and in the eastern angle they
had a stronghold of unusual resistance.
From these two positions machine
guns could sweep the whole wood,
while barricades of wire and fallen
trees blocked all approach to them.
The 2nd Bavarian Corps, some of the
best fighting material in the German
ranks, held these fortresses, until the
London and Northumbrian Terri-
torials, on September 15, worked up
the sides of the wood, clearing out
trenches and shell hole positions, a
task that was "horrible in every foot"
and cost grave losses. By the end of
the day, the lines which for two
months had been confined to the
southern end of the wood, were pushed
on to a distance of about 1000 yards
beyond its northern limits. "There
was no finer achievement in the day's
advance."
The New Zealanders, co-operating
with the division of the New Army on
their right in the capture of Flers, had
for their objective a strip of high ground
to the west of Flers on the top of the
plateau. High wood was on their left;
the division advancing upon Flers, on
their right. After the switch trench
lying before them had been rushed and
occupied, they made a new start
onward against the section of the
German third line called "the Flers
line." There they were overtaken by
two tanks, which flattened down wire
and disabled machine guns, opening a
way for the troops. The New Zea-
landers, with one of the tanks to
accompany them, proceeded until they
formed a salient extending beyond the
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
divisions on their right and left. They
had gone on to a point fully 800 yards
beyond the most advanced position
they had been expected to reach. It
was necessary to straighten their line,
so they drew back into a position run-
ning directly westward from the north-
ern end of Flers. The counter-attacks
which were flung against them failed to
move them.
T7LERS IS EASY BUT THE QUADRILATERAL
.T IS MORE DIFFICULT.
At Flers, which was taken by a force
made up largely of London troops, after
they had broken through their portion
of the trench-lines stretched before the
town, a tank made a pathway of
approach through the wire entangle-
ments that had held up the foot
.soldiers, then "proceeded up the main
street amid the cheers of our men, as
calmly as an omnibus up Oxford
Street." Resistance was not at all
stiff at this point, and the British
casualties were few. A division of
Light Infantry had had a share in the
taking of Flers. They started by
clearing out "Mystery Corner," on
the eastern side of Delville Wood, be-
fore the general advance began.
The greatest difficulty and, ac-
cordingly, the least progress attended
the efforts on the extreme right of
General Rawlinson's army. This was
owing to the remarkable strength of the
fortified point, called the Quadrilateral,
700 yards or more east of Ginchy,
where a protected bend of the Morval
road, deep in a wooded ravine, was
intrenched and well fortified. When
the Regulars who were given the work
of advancing against this position
found it impossible to go forward, the
check in their progress affected the
work of the forces on their left and
their right. The former were the
Guards, who were to start from Ginchy
and make an attack upon Lesboeufs.
The London Territorial Division on the
right, beside forming a defensive flank,
as we have said, was to work through
Bouleaux Wood. The Guards, as was
to be expected, advanced boldly and in
fine order until it became apparent
that their narrow front pushed in
between enfilading fires and, lacking
support from the sides, could not be
sustained.
'T^HE MOST SUCCESSFUL BLOW YET STRUCK
1 BY BRITISH TROOPS.
For the next two days the Quadri-
lateral was under a strain of gunfire,
which damaged the redoubt and helped
to cut a way through the wire. In the
attack launched on the evening of
September 17, the Bavarian troops of
the garrison were finally overwhelmed
by impetuous fighting with bombs and
bayonets. From the redoubt alone
170 unwounded prisoners were taken,
beside many wounded. The whole of
the V-shaped corner yielded, and by
the following morning the British were
able to consolidate their line, with the
Quadrilateral lying behind them. A
dash was made even farther on into
the hollow between them and Morval.
In the three days, September 15, 16,
and 17, "the most effective blow yet
dealt at the enemy by British troops"
had been struck. The advance, av-
eraging one mile in depth on a six-
mile front, included the three fortified
villages of Courcelette, Martinpuich
and Flers; over 4000 prisoners, of
whom 127 were officers, had been
taken, while the casualties had been
comparatively few.
The sensational experiment in the
introduction of the tanks had proved
successful without question. Aside
from the immediate effect produced by
the surprise of their unexpected ap-
pearance, they had shown their per-
manent value in acting as machine-gun
destroyers, a function of primary
importance to the Allies, whose greatest
losses had been due to close-range or
enfilading fire from almost numberless
machine guns in the hands of German
gunners. With a tank looming among
them, acting as a magnet for the bul-
lets or rolling over the gun positions
"blanketing the bugbear," the men
could move with greater freedom and
safety. It has been estimated that per-
haps as many as 20,000 British lives
were saved in the later stages of the
battle of the Somme by the inter-
vention of the tanks. Although some of
the machines broke down before reach-
ing the battle-front and one was dis-
543
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
abled by the enemy, not one was cap-
tured in these first days, while hun-
dreds of prisoners had surrendered to
the tanks and their crews. Moreover,
in their first hour of action, they had
accomplished more damage to the
enemy than the Zeppelins had done in
two years, and this without danger or
injury to non-combatants. As to the
number engaged, twenty-four went
over into the German lines. Of those,
seventeen performed excellent service.
hands, together with trenches there
and on the south side of the town.
Meanwhile, south of the Somme, be-
tween Barleux and Vermandovillers,
General Micheler's Army was securing
German positions, over a long front.
Vermandovillers fell on September 17.
The capture of Deniecourt and its
famous fortified park, on the eight-
eenth, completed their conquest of the
plateau on which it was situated. The
official register stated that in the
CANADIAN ARTILLERY IN ACTION
This picture, painted by Captain Kenneth K. Forbes, presents with startling force a scene of vivid action in the
neighborhood of Thiepval before the capture of the town. It shows a 6-inch Howitzer Battery which underwent
severe shelling, with many casualties. The survivors who were not too badly wounded, with splendid fortitude
and indomitable will, kept the guns in action through the whole attack. Canadian War Records
One went on a "lonely tour" as far as
Gueudecourt. When it had to be
abandoned, the crew wrecked it, leav-
ing it as a memento of their visit.
*-pHE FRENCH LIKEWISE ADVANCE IN
1 THEIR SECTION.
After a signal victory, on September
13, when, with the seizure of Bou-
chavesnes, the army of General Fayolle
had taken a step over onto the east
side of the Peronne-Bapaume road,
securing more than 2000 prisoners at
the same time, these French forces
continued to carry forward their part
of the envelopment of Combles. Le
Priez Farm, one of the principal pro-
tective works of the Germans on the
east side of Combles, fell into their
544
attack of these three mid-September
days the British and French together
had added 7059 prisoners to their
account.
For nearly a week, while thick, rainy
weather prevented a continuance of
the larger operations, local fighting at
many points served to straighten out
the front. It was on Sunday, Septem-
ber 24, that a renewal of bombardment
gave warning that a new charge was
about to be made. Morval, Lesboeufs,
Gueudecourt, and a strip of land be-
yond Flers, stretching around in the
direction of Martinpuich, were des-
tined to feel the force of the Fourth
Army's attack, in an endeavor to drive
the enemy back into his fourth line of
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
defense. The seizure of Thiepval by
the right wing of the Fifth Army, and
the completion of the capture of Com-
bles by the combined work of General
Rawlinson's and General Fayolle's
forces were hoped for. The actual
advance yielded results of unusual
success, leaving little unattained that
had been planned.
GIRD TRENCH TAKEN WITH THE AID OF
A TANK AND AN AEROPLANE.
At 12:35 P.M. on the twenty-fifth,
the forward rush started. At last the
difficulties surrounding Morval were
conquered, and the town was entered.
Lesboeufs in spite of its complicated
barriers of fortified sunken roads and
ravines, was carried by the Guards in a
short time. Gueudecourt, its approach
"a veritable porcupine, with prickles
in all directions," did not yield so soon.
The vigorous resistance of Gird Trench
and Gird Support, double fortified
lines lying south and west of the place;
artillery fire that prevented the ap-
proach of supporting troops; and
flanking machine-gun fire from an-
other trench, postponed the victory
of the British there until the following
day.
Early in the morning of that day a
tank and an aeroplane took part in
subduing Gird Trench. The one rolled
along down the trench, while the other
flew over it. Both used machine guns
with such effect that numbers of the
enemy were killed, and the remainder
waved white handkerchiefs in sur-
render so that when the trench was
cleared, the total number of prisoners
amounted to 370, eight of whom were
officers. The tank, after going through
the village with the victorious infantry,
made a trip into the midst of the
enemy farther on. Temporarily dis-
abled by some trouble in its machinery,
it came to a stop and very soon was
surrounded by Germans, who swarmed
over it "like the Lilliputs on Gulliver"
until the infantry arrived to drive them
off and the mechanism was put into
working order again.
/COMBLES, A MAZE OF UNDERGROUND
\^ FORTIFICATIONS.
On the afternoon of the twenty-fifth
the French had secured Rancourt; dur-
ing the night they had passed on to
Fregicourt, taken that, and obtained
a hold upon the fringes of Combles.
The Germans in the town had been
left but one outlet, a ravine running out
to the northeast. From the south
side of the railway the French, and
from the north side the British, worked
in, meeting no resistance once they
had reached the town. In the dimness
of early dawn, on the twenty-sixth,
they came together at the railway in
the centre of Combles. The mightily-
fortified mass of cellars and under-
ground galleries, which had provided
extensive shelter for troops and ma-
terial (in fact, a German arsenal) had
passed into the possession of the Allies,
yielding large quantities of ammunition
and other stores, although the greater
part had been removed before the
town was entered. It was rather be-
cause of its use as a large distributing
centre than because of its strategic
value that the reduction of Combles
was desirable. It was, too, the first
canton capital to be recovered from
the Germans since October, 1914.
At last the time had come for the
downfall of Thiepval overlooking the
valley of the Ancre and lying in a nest
of almost invincible fortifications. On
the spurs of high land around the
town forming, as they did, the western
extremity of the long ridge now so
nearly won, there had been prepared
such strongholds as Leipzic Re-
doubt, the southernmost stronghold;
the Wunderwerk; the Zollern Re-
doubt; Stufen (or Stuff) Redoubt, to
the northeast; and Schwaben Redoubt,
on the highest land of all, 1000 yards
north of the village. "The whole
area, with a southern frontage of about
2500 yards, was practically one fortress,
a veritable Gibraltar with cellars and
subterranean galleries, and the de-
fenses inside as nearly perfect as two
years of labor could make them."
MORE UNDERGROUND WORKS IN AND
AROUND THIEPVAL.
In the opening attack of July I, a
foot had been set upon Leipzic Re-
doubt. By the end of August, the
Fifth Army was less than a mile from
Thiepval. In the brilliant charge of
545
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
September 14, the Wunderwerk had
been seized. But Thiepval was over
the edge of an intervening ridge, with
its original garrison of veteran troops,
the i Both Wurtembergers, who were
serenely confident of the impregnabil-
ity of their underground works, al-
though the constructions on the surface
had been pounded into powder by
long and terrible artillery fire. A
spot of crushed red brick identified
the site of the Chateau, which before
In a few hours they had gained the
Chateau. Where machine guns were
too insistent and devastating for the
infantry alone, tanks came to the
rescue. One of them for a while acted
as a stationary fort. Two battles
simultaneously stormed through the
ruins, one in the open, and one in the
dim, subterranean depths. The enemy
had been taken unawares and could
hardly realize his danger, so sure had
been his confidence in his impregnable
A GERMAN DUGOUT AS THE BRITISH FOUND IT
This picture gives a definite impression of the extent, equipment and finish of some of the German dugouts. Note
the stairway, the smoothly boarded walls and ceiling, the electric fixtures, the wire-spring berths, and the bell to
give alarm of gas attacks. The clutter of canteens, helmets, boots and bottles offers a sad comment.
the war had been owned by a German.
He is supposed to have made prepara-
tions for hostilities, for the cellars and
passages under the building were so
cavernous and strong as to form the
heart of a maze of dugouts, shelters,
and tunnels that were of most formid-
able proportions and strength. Con-
necting with them and passing from
the village to the fortified cemetery
on the north, a sunken road with