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Life in a Tank - Richard Haigh · Commentary on The Book of Genesis

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Speaker 1: Life in a Tank by Richard C. Haig, m C.
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Speaker 1: This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Chapter one. The meaning of the Tank
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Speaker 1: Corps Tanks To the uninitiated, as were we in those
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Speaker 1: days when we returned to the Psalm too late to
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Speaker 1: see the tanks make their first dramatic entrance. The name
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Speaker 1: conjures up a picture of an iron monster, breathing fire
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Speaker 1: and exhaling bullets and shells, hurling itself against the enemy,
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Speaker 1: unassailable by man and impervious to the most deadly engines
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Speaker 1: of war. Sublime indeed in its expression of indomitable power
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Speaker 1: and resolution. This picture was one of the two factors
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Speaker 1: which attracted us toward the Heavy Branched Machine Gun Corps,
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Speaker 1: as the Tank Corps is known. In the first year
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Speaker 1: of its being on the Psalm, we had seen a
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Speaker 1: derelic tank wrecked, despoiled of her guns, and forsaken in
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Speaker 1: Nomad's land. We had swarmed around and over her while
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Speaker 1: with curiosity, much as the little Pusians must have swarmed
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Speaker 1: around the prostate Gulliver. Our imagination was fired. The second
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Speaker 1: factor was frankly, that we were tired of going over
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Speaker 1: the top as infantryman. The first time that a man
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Speaker 1: goes into an attack, he is a rule enjoys it.
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Speaker 1: He has no conception of his horrors. No not horrors,
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Speaker 1: for war possesses no horrors. But rather he has no
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Speaker 1: knowledge of the sudden realization of the sweetness of life
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Speaker 1: that comes to a man when he is up against
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Speaker 1: it the first time. It is a splendid and nobling novelty.
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Speaker 1: And as for the show itself, in actual practice it
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Speaker 1: is more like a dream which only clarifies several days
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Speaker 1: later after it is all over. But to do the
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Speaker 1: same thing a second, and third and fourth time is
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Speaker 1: to bring a man face to face with death in
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Speaker 1: his fullest and most realistic uncertainty. In soldier jargon, he
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Speaker 1: gets most awful wind up. It is five minutes before
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Speaker 1: zero hour, all preparations are complete. You're waiting for the
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Speaker 1: signal to hop over the parapet. Very probably the v boss
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Speaker 1: knows that you are coming and is already skimming the
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Speaker 1: sand bags with his machine guns and knocking little pieces
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Speaker 1: of earth and stone into your face. Extraordinary, how maddening
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Speaker 1: is the sting of these little harmless pebbles and bits
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Speaker 1: of dirt. The bullets ricochet away with a peculiar singing
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Speaker 1: hiss or crack overhead when they go too high. The
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Speaker 1: shells which burst on the other side of the parapet
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Speaker 1: shake the ground with a dull thud and crash. There
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Speaker 1: are two minutes to wait before going over. Then is
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Speaker 1: the time when a man feels a sinking sensation in
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Speaker 1: his stomach, when his hands tremble ever so slightly, and
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Speaker 1: when he offers up a pathetic little prayer to God
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Speaker 1: that a piece of bit of a sportsman, he may
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Speaker 1: be spared from death, should his getting through not violate
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Speaker 1: the divine and fatalistic plans. He has that unpleasant lack
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Speaker 1: of knowledge of what comes beyond. For after all, with
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Speaker 1: the most intense belief in the world, it is hard
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Speaker 1: to reconcile the comforting feeling of what one knows with
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Speaker 1: that terrible dread of the unknown. The man has no
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Speaker 1: great and glorious ideas That nothing man because he is
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Speaker 1: ready to die for his country. He is of course
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Speaker 1: ready to die for her, but he does not think
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Speaker 1: about it. He lights a cigarette and tries to be nonchalant,
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Speaker 1: for he knows that his men are watching him, and
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Speaker 1: it is his duty to keep up a front for
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Speaker 1: their sake, probably at the same time they are keeping
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Speaker 1: up a front for him. Then the sergeant major comes along,
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Speaker 1: cool and smiling, as if he were out for a
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Speaker 1: stroll at home. Suddenly he is an immense comfort. One
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Speaker 1: forgets that sinking feeling in the stomach and thinks, how
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Speaker 1: easy and jolly he is, What a splendid fellow. Immediately
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Speaker 1: one begins unconsciously to imitate him. Then another thinks the
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Speaker 1: same thing about one, and begins to imitate too. So
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Speaker 1: it passes on down the line. But there is nothing
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Speaker 1: heroic or exalting in going over the top. This, then,
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Speaker 1: was our possible second reason for preferring to attack inside
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Speaker 1: bulletproof steel. Not that death is less likely in a tank,
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Speaker 1: but there seems to be a more sporting chance with
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Speaker 1: a shell than with a bullet. The enemy infantryman looks
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Speaker 1: along his sight, and he has you for a certainty.
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Speaker 1: But the gunner cannot be so accurate, and twenty yards
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Speaker 1: may mean a world of difference. Above all, the new
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Speaker 1: monster had our imaginations and thrall here were novelty and
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Speaker 1: wonderful developments in the end of nineteen sixteen. Therefore, a
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Speaker 1: number of officers and men received their orders to join
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Speaker 1: the HBMGC and proceeded sorrowfully and joyfully away from the trenches.
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Speaker 1: Sorrowfully because it is a poor thing to leave your
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Speaker 1: men and your friends in danger, and get out of
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Speaker 1: it yourself into something new and fresh, joyfully because one is,
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Speaker 1: after all but human. About thirty miles behind the lines,
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Speaker 1: some villages were set aside for the housing and training
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Speaker 1: of the new units. Each unard had a nucleus of
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Speaker 1: men who had already served in tanks, with the new
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Speaker 1: arrivals spread around to make up to strength. The new
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Speaker 1: arrivals came from all branches of the service, infantry, sappers, gunners, cavalry,
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Speaker 1: and the Army Service Corps. Each man was very proud
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Speaker 1: of his own branch, and a wonderfully healthy rivalry and
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Speaker 1: affection sprang up between them. The gunner twitted the sapper,
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Speaker 1: The cavermen made jokes at the A s C. And
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Speaker 1: the infantrymen grouped at the whole lot. But all knew
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Speaker 1: at the bottom of their hearts how each is essential
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Speaker 1: to the other. It was to be expected when all
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Speaker 1: these varied men came together, that the inculcating of a
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Speaker 1: properestpree to corps, the training of each individual in an
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Speaker 1: entirely new science for the benefit of the whole, would
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Speaker 1: prove a very difficult and painstaking task. But the wonderful development, however,
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Speaker 1: in a few months, of a large heterogeneous collection of
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Speaker 1: men into a solid, keen, self sacrificing unit was but
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Speaker 1: another instance of the way in which war improves the
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Speaker 1: character and temperament of man. It was entirely new for
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Speaker 1: men who were formerly in a regiment full of traditions
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Speaker 1: to find themselves in the tank Corps. Here was a corps,
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Speaker 1: the functions of which resulted from an idea born of
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Speaker 1: the exigencies of the science demanding war. Unlike every other
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Speaker 1: branch of the service, it has no regimental history to
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Speaker 1: direct it, no traditions upon which to build, and, still
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Speaker 1: more important, from a practical point of view, no experience
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Speaker 1: from which to draw for guidance, either in training or
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Speaker 1: in action. In the infantry. The attack has resulted from
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Speaker 1: a steady development in ideas and tactics, with past wars
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Speaker 1: to give a foundation, and this present one to suggest
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Speaker 1: changes and to bring about remedies for the defects which
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Speaker 1: crop up daily. With this new weapon, which was launched
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Speaker 1: on the Psalm on September fifteenth, nineteen sixteen, the tactics
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Speaker 1: had to be decided upon with no realistic experimentation as groundwork,
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Speaker 1: and moreover, with a very difficult task of working in
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Speaker 1: concert with other arms of the service. They had two
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Speaker 1: years of fighting from which to earn wisdom with regard
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Speaker 1: to discipline too. Of all things, the most important for
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Speaker 1: the success of a battle has depended, does and always
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Speaker 1: will depend upon the state of discipline of the troops engaged.
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Speaker 1: All old regiments have their staff of regular instructors to
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Speaker 1: drill and teach recruit in them. Has grown up that
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Speaker 1: certain feeling and loyalty which time and past deeds have
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Speaker 1: done so much to fa foster and cherish. Here were
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Speaker 1: we lacking traditions, history, and experience of any kind. It
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Speaker 1: is easy to realize the responsibility that lay not only
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Speaker 1: upon the chief of this new corps, but upon each
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Speaker 1: individual and lowest member thereof. It was for us all
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Speaker 1: to produce su spree to corps, and to produce it quickly.
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Speaker 1: It was necessary for us to develop a love of
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Speaker 1: the work, not because we felt it was worth while,
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Speaker 1: but because we knew that success or failure depended on
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Speaker 1: each man's individual efforts. But naturally, the real impetus came
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Speaker 1: from the top, and no admiration or praise can be
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Speaker 1: worthy of that small number of men in whose hands
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Speaker 1: the real destinies of this new formation lay, who were
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Speaker 1: continually devising new schemes and ideas for binding the hole
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Speaker 1: together and for turning that hole into a highly efficient,
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Speaker 1: up to date machine. How did the tank happen to
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Speaker 1: be invented? As a common question, the answer is that
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Speaker 1: in past wars, experience has made it an axiom that
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Speaker 1: the defenders suffered more casualties than the attacking forces. From
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Speaker 1: the first days of nineteen fourteen, however, this condition was reversed,
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Speaker 1: and whole waves of attacking troops were mown down by
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Speaker 1: two or three machine guns each man, possibly by not
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Speaker 1: more than three men. There may be in a certain
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Speaker 1: sector before an attack an enormous preliminary bombardment which is
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Speaker 1: destined to knock out guns, observation posts, dumps men, and
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Speaker 1: above all machine gun and placements. Nevertheless, it has been
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Speaker 1: found in actual practice that despite the most careful observation
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Speaker 1: an equally careful study of aeroplane photographs, there are as
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Speaker 1: a rule just one or two machine guns which, either
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Speaker 1: through bad luck or through precautions on the part of
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Speaker 1: the enemy, have escaped destruction. These are the guns which
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Speaker 1: inflict the damage when the infantrymen go over, and which
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Speaker 1: may hold up a whole attack. It was thought, therefore,
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Speaker 1: that a machine might be devised which would cross shell craters,
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Speaker 1: wire and trenches, and be at the same time impervious
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Speaker 1: to bullets, and which would contain a certain number of guns,
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Speaker 1: to be used for knocking out such machine guns as
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Speaker 1: were still in use use, or to lay low the
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Speaker 1: enemy infantry. With this idea, a group of men in
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Speaker 1: the end of nineteen fifteen devised a present type of
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Speaker 1: heavy armored car. In order to keep the whole plant
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Speaker 1: as secret as possible, about twenty five square miles of
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Speaker 1: ground in Great Britain were set aside and surrounded with
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Speaker 1: armed guards. There Through all the spring and early summer
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Speaker 1: of nineteen sixteen, the work was carried on without the
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Speaker 1: slightest hint of its existence reaching the outside world. Then
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Speaker 1: one night the tanks were loaded up and shipped over
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Speaker 1: to France to make that first sensational appearance on the Psalm,
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Speaker 1: with the success which warranted their further production on a
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Speaker 1: larger and more ambitious scale. End of chapter one Chapter
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Speaker 1: two of Life in the Tank by Richard Haig. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. First days of
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Speaker 1: training we were at a rest camp on the Psalm
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Speaker 1: when the first hit came round guarding the joining of
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Speaker 1: the HB MGC. The colonel came up to us one
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Speaker 1: day with some papers in his hand. Does anybody want
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Speaker 1: to join this? He asked. We all crowded around to
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Speaker 1: find out what this might be. Thanks, someone cried, Some
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Speaker 1: are fasidious, others indifferent, a few mildly interested, but no
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Speaker 1: one seemed very keen about it, especially as the tanks
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Speaker 1: in those days had a reputation for rather heavy casualties.
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Speaker 1: Only Talbot, remembering the derelict in the interest she had inspired,
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Speaker 1: said with a laugh, I rather think I'll put my
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Speaker 1: name down, sir. Nothing will come of it, but one
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Speaker 1: might just as well try, and taking one of the papers,
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Speaker 1: he filled it in while the other stood around, making
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Speaker 1: all the remarks appropriate to such an occasion. Two or
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Speaker 1: three weeks went by, and Talbot had forgotten all about
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Speaker 1: it in the more absorbing events which crowded months since
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Speaker 1: the day's on the psalm. One day, the adjutant came
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Speaker 1: up to him and smiling, put out his hand. Well, goodbye, Talbot,
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Speaker 1: and good luck. When a man puts out his hand
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Speaker 1: and says goodbye, you naturally take their profered hand and
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Speaker 1: say goodbye too. Talbot found himself saying goodbye before he
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Speaker 1: realized what he was doing. Then he laughed. Now that
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Speaker 1: I've said goodbye, where am I going? He asked to
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Speaker 1: the tanks. The adjutant replied, so he was really to go,
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Speaker 1: really to leave behind his battalion, his friends, and his servant.
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Speaker 1: For a moment, the Psalm in the camp seemed the
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Speaker 1: most desirable places on earth. He thought he must have
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Speaker 1: been a fool the day that he signed that paper
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Speaker 1: signifying his desire to join another corps. But it was done.
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Speaker 1: Now there were his orders in the colonel's hand. When
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Speaker 1: do I start, sir? And where do I go? He asked?
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Speaker 1: You're to leave immediately for b wherever that is, Take
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Speaker 1: your horse as far as the railhead and get a
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Speaker 1: train for Bee where the tank headquarters are goodbye, Talbot,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry to lose you. A silent handshake, and they parted.
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Speaker 1: Talbot's kit was packed and set off on the transport.
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Speaker 1: A few minutes later, he was shaking hands all round.
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Speaker 1: His spears were right at the thought of his new adventure.
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Speaker 1: But it was a wrench leaving his regiment. It was
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Speaker 1: in a way, he thought, as if he were turning
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Speaker 1: his back on an old friend. The face of Dobbin,
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Speaker 1: his groom, as he brought the horses round, was not
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Speaker 1: conductive to cheer. He must get the business over and
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Speaker 1: be off. So he mounted and rode off through a gray,
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Speaker 1: murky drizzle to the railhead about eight miles away. There
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Speaker 1: came the parting with Dobbin and with his pony horses
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Speaker 1: meant as much as men sometimes, and his had worked
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Speaker 1: so nobly with him through the mud on the palm.
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Speaker 1: He wondered if there would be any one in a
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Speaker 1: new place who would be so faithful to him as Polly.
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Speaker 1: Finally there was Dobbin riding away back to him, with
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Speaker 1: the horse and its empty saddle trotting along beside him.
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Speaker 1: It was simply rotten leaving them off. One has, however,
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Speaker 1: a little time for introspection in the army, and especially
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Speaker 1: when one engages in a tilt with an rt O.
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Speaker 1: The RTO has been glorified by an imaginative soul with
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Speaker 1: a title of Royal Transportation Officer. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: the yard does not stand for royal but for railway,
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Speaker 1: and the tea is for transport. Nothing so grandiose, says transportation. Now.
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Speaker 1: In rto's job, though it may be a safe one,
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Speaker 1: it's not enviable. He is forced to combine the qualities
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Speaker 1: of booking clerk, station master, goods agent, information clerk, and
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Speaker 1: day and night watchman all into one. In consequence of this,
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Speaker 1: it is necessary for the traveler's speech and attitude to
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Speaker 1: be strictly soothing and complimentary. Talbot's obsession at this moment
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Speaker 1: was as to whether B was near or far back
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Speaker 1: from the line. If he supposed that B was near
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Speaker 1: the line, the RTO might tell him, just to prove
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Speaker 1: how kind fate is, that it was a good many
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Speaker 1: miles in the rear. But no such luck. The RTO
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Speaker 1: coally informed Talbot that he hadn't the slightest idea where
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Speaker 1: it B was. He only knew that trains went there,
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Speaker 1: and by the way, the trains didn't go there direct,
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Speaker 1: it would be necessary for him to change at Borelonge.
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Speaker 1: Talbot noticed these signs of thawing with delight, and to
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Speaker 1: change at Borelonne. Life was brighter traveling in France in
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Speaker 1: the northern area at the present time. It seemed to
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Speaker 1: be a refutation of the truth that a straight line
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Speaker 1: is the shortest distance between two points. For in order
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Speaker 1: to arrive at one's destination, it is usually necessary to
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Speaker 1: go about sixty miles out of one's way. Instant necessity
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Speaker 1: for a tie was going to Bourlogne in order to
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Speaker 1: get a train running north. He arrived at Bologne only
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Speaker 1: to find that the train for b left in an hour.
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Speaker 1: He strolled out into the streets. Bologne had then become
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Speaker 1: the mecca for all those in search of gayety. Here
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Speaker 1: were civilized people once again, and a restaurant with linen
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Speaker 1: and silver and shining glass in the best dinner he
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Speaker 1: had ever eaten. When he had paid his bill and
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Speaker 1: gone out, he stopped at the corner of the street
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Speaker 1: just to look at the people passing by. A large
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Speaker 1: part of the monotony of this war is occasioned of course,
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Speaker 1: by the fact that the soldier sees nothing but the
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Speaker 1: everlasting drab of uniforms. When a man is in the
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Speaker 1: front line or just behind, for weeks at a time,
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Speaker 1: he sees nothing but soldiers, soldiers soldiers. Each man had
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Speaker 1: the same color uniform, each has the same pattern tunic,
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Speaker 1: the same petise. Each is covered with the same mud
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Speaker 1: for days at a time. It is the occasion for
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Speaker 1: a thrill when a brass hat arrives, for he at
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Speaker 1: least has a little brilliant red tabs on his tunic.
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Speaker 1: A man sometimes finds himself envying the soldiers of the
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Speaker 1: old days, who could have occasional glimpses of the dashing
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Speaker 1: uniforms of their officers. And although a red coat makes
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Speaker 1: the target of a man, the color is at least
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Speaker 1: more cheerful than the eternal khaki. The old time soldier
15:30
Speaker 1: had his red coat and his bands blaring encouragingly. The
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Speaker 1: soldier of today has his drab and no music at
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Speaker 1: all unless he sings, And every man in the army
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Speaker 1: is not gifted with a voice. So Talbot looked with
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Speaker 1: joy on the charming dresses and still more charming faces
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Speaker 1: of the woman and girls who passed him. Even the
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Speaker 1: men in their civilian clothes were good to look upon.
15:51
Speaker 1: Writing on French trains is very soothing unless one is
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Speaker 1: in a hurry. But unlike a man in civilian life,
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Speaker 1: the soldier has no interest in the speed of trains.
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Speaker 1: The civilian takes it as a personal affront if his
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Speaker 1: train is a few minutes late, or if it does
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Speaker 1: not go as fast as he thinks it should. But
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Speaker 1: the soldier can afford to let the government look after
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Speaker 1: such minor details. The train moved along at a leisurely
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Speaker 1: paced through the lovely French countryside, making frequent friendly stops
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Speaker 1: at wayside stations. On the platform at Tables station was
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Speaker 1: posted a rhyme which read, A wise old owl lived
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Speaker 1: in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke,
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Speaker 1: The less he spoke, the more he heard. Soldiers should
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Speaker 1: imitate that old Bert. It was the first time that
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Speaker 1: Talbot had seen this Warlike Diddy, its intention was to
16:39
Speaker 1: guard soldiers from saying too much in front of strangers.
16:42
Speaker 1: Talbot vowed, however, to apply its moral to himself at
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Speaker 1: all times and under all conditions. From nine in the
16:48
Speaker 1: morning until half past two in the afternoon, they rolled
16:51
Speaker 1: along and it covered by this time the extraordinary distance
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Speaker 1: of about forty miles. Here at last was the station
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Speaker 1: of Saint Pete. Robot looked about him. Standing near was
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Speaker 1: an officer with a machine gun corps badge, whom he
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Speaker 1: hailed and questioned about the headquarters of the Tank Corps
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Speaker 1: about ten miles from here. Are you going there, the
17:09
Speaker 1: fellow asked. Talbot explained that he hoped to, and, being
17:12
Speaker 1: saturated with infantry ideas, he wondered if a passing motor
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Speaker 1: laurie might give him a lip. The man laughed, why
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Speaker 1: don't you telephone headquarters and asked them to send a
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Speaker 1: car over for you. He asked. Talbot did not quite
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Speaker 1: know whether the fellow were ragging him or not. He
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Speaker 1: decided that he was, for who had ever heard of
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Speaker 1: telephoning for a car? Well, I don't believe I'll do that.
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Speaker 1: Thanks very much for the hent. All the same, he said,
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Speaker 1: just tell me which road to take and I'll be
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Speaker 1: quite all right. The officer smiled. I'm quite serious about it,
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Speaker 1: he said. We all telephone for cars when we need them.
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Speaker 1: There's really no point in your walking. In fact, they'll
17:48
Speaker 1: be surprised if you stroll in upon them. Try telephoning
17:51
Speaker 1: and you'll find they won't die of shock. Partly to
17:54
Speaker 1: see whether they would or not, and partly because he
17:57
Speaker 1: found the prospect of a motor car more agreeable than
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Speaker 1: a ten mile walk, Talbot telephone here he experienced another
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Speaker 1: pleasant surprise, for he was put through the headquarters with
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Speaker 1: no difficulty at all. A cheerful voice answered, and he
18:10
Speaker 1: stated his case, cheerio. The voice replied, we'll have a
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Speaker 1: car there for you in an hour. Have it one now,
18:16
Speaker 1: but there will be one ready shortly. Saint Pete was
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Speaker 1: a typical French town, and Talbot strolled around. There were
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Speaker 1: soldiers everywhere, but the town had never seen the Germans,
18:25
Speaker 1: and it was a pleasant place. There was too, a
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Speaker 1: refreshing lack of thick mud, at least it was not
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Speaker 1: a foot deep. Although Talbot could not quite believe that
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Speaker 1: the car would materialize, it proved to be a substantial fact,
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Speaker 1: in the form of a box body, and in about
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Speaker 1: an hour he was speeding toward headquarters. It was dark
18:42
Speaker 1: when they reached the village, and as they entered, he
18:44
Speaker 1: experienced a curious feeling of apprehensive expectancy with which one
18:48
Speaker 1: approaches the spot where one is to live and work
18:51
Speaker 1: for some time to come. The car slowed up to
18:54
Speaker 1: pass some carts on the road and started forward with
18:56
Speaker 1: such a jerk that Talbot was precipitated from the back
18:59
Speaker 1: of the machine into the road. He picked himself up,
19:02
Speaker 1: covered with mud. The solemn face of the driver did
19:05
Speaker 1: not lessen his discomfiture. Here was a strange village, strange men,
19:09
Speaker 1: and he was covered with mud. Making himself as presentable
19:12
Speaker 1: as possible, Talbot reported to headquarters and was posted to
19:16
Speaker 1: J Company, fourth Battalion. That night he had dinner with them.
19:20
Speaker 1: New men were arriving every few minutes, and the next day,
19:23
Speaker 1: after he had been transferred to K Company, they continued
19:25
Speaker 1: to arrive. The nucleus of this company were officers of
19:29
Speaker 1: the original tanks, three or four of them, perhaps, and
19:32
Speaker 1: the rest was made up with the newcomers. Men continued
19:35
Speaker 1: to arrive in driblets from the beginning of December to
19:39
Speaker 1: the first of January. When a new man joins an
19:41
Speaker 1: old regiment, there is a reserve about the others which
19:44
Speaker 1: is rather chilling. They wait to see whether he is
19:47
Speaker 1: going to fit in before they make any attempts to
19:49
Speaker 1: fit The men in a way. This very aloofness makes
19:52
Speaker 1: for comfort on the part of the newcomer at mess.
19:55
Speaker 1: He is left alone until he is absorbed. Naturally, he
19:58
Speaker 1: gives him a chance to find his level. All this
20:01
Speaker 1: was different with the Tank Corps. With the exception of
20:04
Speaker 1: the very few officers who were old men, we were
20:07
Speaker 1: all painfully new, so that we regarded one another without
20:11
Speaker 1: criticism and came to know each other without having to
20:13
Speaker 1: break through the wall of reserve, an instinctive mistrust which
20:17
Speaker 1: is characteristically British. A happy bond of good fellowship was
20:21
Speaker 1: formed immediately. The first few days were spent in finding
20:25
Speaker 1: billets for the men. They were finally quartered at a
20:28
Speaker 1: hospice in the village. This was a private almshouse in
20:31
Speaker 1: charge of a group of French nuns, where lived a
20:34
Speaker 1: number of old men and women, most of them in
20:36
Speaker 1: the last stages of consumption. The hospice consisted of the
20:40
Speaker 1: old abbey of Saint Bertha, built in the twelfth century,
20:43
Speaker 1: and several outbuildings around a courtyard. And these barns lived
20:47
Speaker 1: the men, and one large room was reserved for the
20:49
Speaker 1: officer's mess. The company orderly room and quartermaster's stores were
20:53
Speaker 1: also kept in the hospice, and four or five officers
20:56
Speaker 1: were quartered above the refractory. The buildings were cleaned and comfortable,
21:00
Speaker 1: and the only drawback lay in the fact that one
21:03
Speaker 1: sometimes found it objectionable to have to look at these
21:06
Speaker 1: poor old creatures dragging themselves around. They had nothing to do,
21:09
Speaker 1: it seemed, but to wait and die. The old man
21:12
Speaker 1: was a gruesome sight. He was about ninety years old
21:15
Speaker 1: and spent his days walking about the courtyard wearing a
21:18
Speaker 1: cigarette tin hung around his neck, into which he used
21:21
Speaker 1: to cough with such terrible effort that it seemed as
21:23
Speaker 1: if he would die every time the spasm shook him.
21:26
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he and many others did
21:29
Speaker 1: die before we left the village. The extreme cold was
21:32
Speaker 1: too much for them, or perhaps it was the fact
21:34
Speaker 1: that their quiet had been invaded by the mad English.
21:38
Speaker 1: It was during this time that Talbot developed a positive
21:41
Speaker 1: genius for disappearing whenever a gray habit came into sight.
21:45
Speaker 1: The nuns were splendid women, kind and hospitable and eager
21:48
Speaker 1: for our comfort, but they did not like to be
21:51
Speaker 1: imposed upon, however slightly, the first thing that French women do,
21:55
Speaker 1: and these nuns were no exception. When soldiers are billeted
21:58
Speaker 1: with them, is learned he was the officer in charge,
22:01
Speaker 1: in order that they may lose no time in bringing
22:04
Speaker 1: their complaints to him. The Mother Superior of the hospice
22:07
Speaker 1: selected Talbot with unerring zeal. His days were made miserable until,
22:12
Speaker 1: in self defense he thought of formulating a new calendar
22:15
Speaker 1: of crimes for his men, in which would be included
22:18
Speaker 1: all the terrible offenses which the Mother Superior told off
22:21
Speaker 1: to him. Did the Colonel send for Captain Talbot? And
22:24
Speaker 1: did Talbot hurry off to obey the command? Just so
22:27
Speaker 1: surely would the Mother Superior select that moment to bar
22:30
Speaker 1: his path A long copy times she would exclaim, with
22:33
Speaker 1: a beaming smile, Jacquilly shall say, will dare and so them.
22:38
Speaker 1: Talbot would break in politely, just as she had settled
22:41
Speaker 1: down for a good long chat, and explained that the
22:43
Speaker 1: colonel wished to see him as we'll try to move
22:46
Speaker 1: the rock. It was either stand and listen or go
22:49
Speaker 1: into the presence of his superior officer, with an excited
22:52
Speaker 1: nun following him with tales of the crimes as men
22:54
Speaker 1: had committed. Needless to say, the Mother Superior conquered Talbot
22:58
Speaker 1: would have visions of some fairly serious offense, and would
23:01
Speaker 1: hear the tale of a soldier to return it in
23:03
Speaker 1: fifty minutes at the most, who had borrowed a bucket
23:07
Speaker 1: an hour ago, promising on his honor as a soldier
23:10
Speaker 1: of the king, to return it in fifty minutes at
23:12
Speaker 1: the most. And now it is a full sixty minutes
23:16
Speaker 1: by the clock on the kitchen mantle, Miss sur le capitan,
23:18
Speaker 1: she would say, her color mounting, and your soldier is
23:21
Speaker 1: not returned my bucket. If he does not bring it back,
23:24
Speaker 1: when can we get another bucket? And so on, until
23:27
Speaker 1: Talbot would pacify her, promising her that the bucket would
23:30
Speaker 1: be returned. Then he would go on to the Colonel,
23:33
Speaker 1: breathless and perturbed, his mind so full of the buckets
23:36
Speaker 1: that there was hardly room for the business of the
23:38
Speaker 1: tank corps. Small wonder that the sight of a gray
23:40
Speaker 1: habit was enough to unnerve the man. He himself was
23:44
Speaker 1: billeted with a French family just around the corner from
23:47
Speaker 1: the hospice. The head of the family had been in
23:50
Speaker 1: the halcyon days before the war. The village butcher there
23:53
Speaker 1: was now Madame the Little Marie, a sturdy boy about twelve,
23:57
Speaker 1: and the old Grandmamma. The husband was away, of course,
24:00
Speaker 1: Doncels Trenchiss, exclaimed Madame with copious tears. Talbot was moved
24:05
Speaker 1: to sympathy and met a few tactfully inquiries as to
24:08
Speaker 1: where the husband was now and how he had fared
24:11
Speaker 1: At least Montenay, Peris, said Madame, with a sigh. In Paris,
24:15
Speaker 1: what rank has he? A general? Maybe ammosier, amuse, said Madame,
24:19
Speaker 1: brightening up. No, her husband was a chef at an
24:22
Speaker 1: officer's mess in Paris, she explained proudly. He had been
24:26
Speaker 1: there since the war broke out. He would soon come home.
24:29
Speaker 1: The saints be praised. Then the captain would hear him
24:31
Speaker 1: tell his tales of life in the army. The hero
24:35
Speaker 1: came home one day, and great was the rejoicing, thrilling
24:38
Speaker 1: evenings the family spent around the stove while they listened
24:41
Speaker 1: to stories of great deeds. On the day when his
24:44
Speaker 1: permission was finished and he set out for his hazardous
24:46
Speaker 1: post once more, great was a lamenting madame wept. All
24:51
Speaker 1: the brave man's relatives poured in to kiss him goodbye.
24:54
Speaker 1: The departing soldier wept himself Even Grandma Maud desisted for
24:58
Speaker 1: that day from cracking jokes, which she was always doing
25:01
Speaker 1: in a patios, that the Talbot was unintelligible. But they
25:05
Speaker 1: were very kind to Talbot and very courageous to the
25:08
Speaker 1: hard winter. When he lay ill with fever in his
25:11
Speaker 1: little low room, where the frost whitened the plaster and
25:14
Speaker 1: icicles hung from the ceiling, Madame and all the others
25:17
Speaker 1: were most solicitous for his comfort. His appreciation and thanks
25:21
Speaker 1: were sincere. By the middle of December, the battalion had
25:24
Speaker 1: finally settled down and we began our training. Our first
25:28
Speaker 1: course of study was in the mechanism of the tanks.
25:31
Speaker 1: We marched down early one morning to an engine hanger
25:33
Speaker 1: that was both cold and drafty. We did not look
25:36
Speaker 1: in the least like embryo heroes over our khaki. We
25:40
Speaker 1: wore ill fitting blue garments, which men on the railways
25:43
Speaker 1: who wear them call boilers. The effect of wearing them
25:46
Speaker 1: was to cause us to slouch along, And suddenly Talbot
25:49
Speaker 1: burst out laughing at the spectacle. Then he remembered, having
25:52
Speaker 1: heard that some of the original tankers had during the
25:55
Speaker 1: som battles been mistaken for Germans, and their blue dungarees.
25:58
Speaker 1: They had been fired on some distance away by their
26:01
Speaker 1: own infantry, though nothing fatal ensued in consequence. Before the
26:06
Speaker 1: next show, Chocolate One's issue. In the shadows of the
26:09
Speaker 1: engine shed, a gray armor plated hulk loomed up. There
26:13
Speaker 1: it is, cried Gould, and started forward for a better
26:16
Speaker 1: look at the willie. Across the face of rigged in
26:19
Speaker 1: the instructor flashed a look of scorn and pain. Just
26:22
Speaker 1: such a look as you may have seen on the
26:24
Speaker 1: face of a young mother when you refer to her
26:26
Speaker 1: baby as it. Don't call a tank it, Gould, he said,
26:30
Speaker 1: with an admirable patience. A tank is either he or she.
26:33
Speaker 1: There is no it in Heaven's name. What's the difference,
26:37
Speaker 1: asked Gould, completely mystified. The rest of us were all ears.
26:41
Speaker 1: The female tank carries machine guns, only rigged and explained
26:45
Speaker 1: the male tank carries light field guns as well as
26:47
Speaker 1: machine guns. Don't ever make the mistake again, any of you, fellows.
26:52
Speaker 1: Having firmly fixed in our minds the fact that we
26:54
Speaker 1: were to begin on a female willie, the instruction proceeded rapidly.
26:58
Speaker 1: Rigged and opened the little door on the side of
27:00
Speaker 1: the tank. It was about as big as a door
27:03
Speaker 1: to a large old fashioned brick oven built into the
27:06
Speaker 1: chimney beside the fireplace. His head disappeared and his body
27:09
Speaker 1: followed after he was swallowed up, save for a hand
27:12
Speaker 1: that waved to us in a muffled voice, which said,
27:15
Speaker 1: come on in, you fellows. Gould went first, He scrambled in,
27:20
Speaker 1: was lost to sight. Then we heard his voice. Mcnutt's
27:23
Speaker 1: infectious laugh rose above the sound of our mirth, but
27:26
Speaker 1: not for long. Hurry up, called rigged you next, McNutt.
27:30
Speaker 1: McNutt disappeared. Then, to our astonishment, his rich Irish voice
27:34
Speaker 1: could be heard upraised and picturesque maldiction. What was rigged
27:38
Speaker 1: In doing to them inside the tank to provoke such
27:40
Speaker 1: profanity from them? Both? The rest of us scrambled to
27:43
Speaker 1: find out. We soon learned. When you enter a tank
27:47
Speaker 1: you go in head first. Entering by the side doors.
27:50
Speaker 1: There is an emergency exit, a hole in the roof
27:52
Speaker 1: which is used by the wise ones. You wiggle your
27:55
Speaker 1: body in with more or less grace, and then you
27:57
Speaker 1: stand up. Then, if it is the first time, usually profane,
28:00
Speaker 1: for you have banged your head most unmercifully against the
28:03
Speaker 1: steel roof, and you learn once and for all that
28:06
Speaker 1: it is impossible to stand upright in a tank. Each
28:09
Speaker 1: one of us received our baptism in this way. Seven
28:12
Speaker 1: of us crofts, in uncomfortable positions, ruefully rubbed our heads.
28:16
Speaker 1: To Riggan's intense enjoyment, our life in a tank had begun.
28:20
Speaker 1: We looked around the little chamber with eager curiosity. Our
28:24
Speaker 1: first thought was that seven men and an officer could
28:27
Speaker 1: never do any work in such a little place. Eight
28:30
Speaker 1: of us were at present jammed in here, but we
28:32
Speaker 1: were standing still. When it came to going into action
28:35
Speaker 1: and moving around inside the tank, it would be impossible.
28:39
Speaker 1: There was no room to pass one another, So we
28:41
Speaker 1: thought in front or two stiff seats, one for the
28:44
Speaker 1: officer and one for the driver. Two narrow slits serve
28:47
Speaker 1: as portholes to which to look ahead. In front of
28:50
Speaker 1: the officer is a map board and gun mounting behind
28:53
Speaker 1: the engine. One on each side are the secondary gears.
28:56
Speaker 1: Down the middle of the tank is a powerful petrol engine,
29:00
Speaker 1: part of it covered with a hood, and along either
29:02
Speaker 1: side a narrow passage through which a man can slide
29:05
Speaker 1: from the officers and driver's seat back and forth to
29:08
Speaker 1: the mechanism. At the rear, there are four gun turrets,
29:11
Speaker 1: two on each side. There is also a place for
29:14
Speaker 1: a gun in the rear, but it is rarely used,
29:16
Speaker 1: for willies do not often turn tail and flee. Along
29:20
Speaker 1: the steel walls are numberless ingenious little cupboards or stores,
29:25
Speaker 1: and ammunition cases are stacked high. Every bit of space
29:29
Speaker 1: is utilized electric bulbs like the interior. Beside the driver
29:33
Speaker 1: are the engine levers. Behind the engine are the secondary
29:37
Speaker 1: gears by which the machine is turned in any direction.
29:40
Speaker 1: All action inside is directed by signals. For when the
29:44
Speaker 1: tank moves, the noise is such as to drown a
29:46
Speaker 1: man's voice. All that first day and for many days after,
29:50
Speaker 1: we struggled with the intricacies of the mechanism. Sometimes reached
29:54
Speaker 1: in despair of us. We might just as well go
29:57
Speaker 1: back to our regiments, unless they were so glad to
29:59
Speaker 1: be rid of us that they would refuse On other days,
30:02
Speaker 1: he being with pride, even when Darwin and the Old
30:05
Speaker 1: Bird distinguished themselves by asking foolish questions. Darwin is of
30:09
Speaker 1: course not his right name. Because he came from South
30:12
Speaker 1: Africa and looked like a baboon, we called him Baboon,
30:16
Speaker 1: so let evolution evolve the name of Darwin for him
30:18
Speaker 1: in these pages. As for the old Bird, no other
30:21
Speaker 1: name could have sidered him so well. He was the
30:23
Speaker 1: craftiest old bird as successfully avoiding work we had ever known,
30:28
Speaker 1: and yet he was one of the best like men
30:30
Speaker 1: in the company. He was one of those men who
30:32
Speaker 1: are absolutely essential to a mess because of his never
30:35
Speaker 1: failing cheer and gayety. He never did a stroke of
30:38
Speaker 1: work he could possibly wangle out of a scotchman. By birth,
30:41
Speaker 1: he was about thirty eight years old and had lived
30:44
Speaker 1: all over the world. He had a special fondness for China.
30:47
Speaker 1: Until he left k company, he was never known by
30:50
Speaker 1: any other name than that of old Bird. There was
30:53
Speaker 1: one man from another company who gave us the greatest
30:56
Speaker 1: amusement during our tank mechanism course. He was pathetically in ourn,
31:00
Speaker 1: but appear to have no brains at all. Sometimes, while
31:03
Speaker 1: asking each other catch questions, we would put the most
31:06
Speaker 1: senseless ones to him. Darwin would say, look here, how
31:09
Speaker 1: is the radiator connected with the differential. The poor fellow
31:13
Speaker 1: would ponder for a minute or two and then reply, oh,
31:15
Speaker 1: through the magneto. He naturally failed again and again to
31:19
Speaker 1: pass his tests, and was returned to his old cores.
31:22
Speaker 1: Somehow we learned not to attempt to stand upright in
31:25
Speaker 1: our steel prison. Before long, McNutt had ceased his remarks
31:29
Speaker 1: about sardines in a tin, and announced, sure, there is
31:32
Speaker 1: plenty of room, and to spare for a dozen others. Here.
31:35
Speaker 1: The old bird no longer compared the atmosphere when we
31:38
Speaker 1: were all shut in, tight with the black hole of Calcutta.
31:42
Speaker 1: In a word, we had succumbed to the willis. It
31:44
Speaker 1: would permit no man to utter a word of criticism
31:47
Speaker 1: against them. It is necessary here, perhaps to explain why
31:51
Speaker 1: we always call our machines willies. When the tanks were
31:54
Speaker 1: first being experimented upon, they evolved too, a big and
31:57
Speaker 1: a little one standing together. They looked so ludicrous that
32:01
Speaker 1: they were nicknamed Big and Little Willie. The name stuck,
32:04
Speaker 1: and now no one in the corps refers to his
32:06
Speaker 1: machine in any other way. A few days before Christmas,
32:09
Speaker 1: our tank course was finished, and the old Bird suggested
32:12
Speaker 1: a celebration. McNutt led the cheering Talbot had an idea.
32:17
Speaker 1: Let's get a box body and go over to our
32:19
Speaker 1: means and do our Christmas shopping. He said. A chorus
32:22
Speaker 1: of Jove, that's great arose. Everyone made himself useful, excepting
32:26
Speaker 1: the Old Bird, who made up by contributing more than
32:29
Speaker 1: anyone else to the gaiety of the occasion. The car
32:32
Speaker 1: was secured and we all piled in, making early morning
32:35
Speaker 1: hideous with our songs. We sped along over the snowy roads,
32:39
Speaker 1: or seemed very far away. We were extraordinarily light hearted.
32:43
Speaker 1: After about twenty miles, the cold sobered us down a little.
32:46
Speaker 1: Suddenly the car seemed to slip from under us, and
32:49
Speaker 1: we found ourselves piled up in the soft snow of
32:52
Speaker 1: the road. A rear wheel had shot off, and it
32:55
Speaker 1: went rolling along on its own. Fortunately, we had been
32:58
Speaker 1: going rather slowly since we were in entering a town,
33:00
Speaker 1: and no one was hurt. Bulwick, the musician of the company,
33:04
Speaker 1: looked like a snow image. Darwin and the Old Bird
33:06
Speaker 1: were locked in each other's arms and had an impromptu
33:09
Speaker 1: and friendly wrestling match and a snow drift. McNutt was
33:12
Speaker 1: invoking the aid of the Saints and his endeavors to
33:15
Speaker 1: prevent the snow from trickling down his back. Talbot and Google,
33:19
Speaker 1: who had got off, lightly, supplied the laughter. The wheel
33:22
Speaker 1: was finally rescued and restored to its proper place, and
33:25
Speaker 1: we crawled along at an ignominious pace until the spires
33:29
Speaker 1: of Amends welcomed us. We shopped in the afternoon, buying
33:34
Speaker 1: all sorts of ridiculous things, and collecting enough stores to
33:37
Speaker 1: see us through a siege. After a hilarious dinner at
33:40
Speaker 1: the hotel the universe never had the old bird been
33:43
Speaker 1: so witty and gay. We started back about eleven o'clock, and,
33:47
Speaker 1: forgetting our injured wheel, raced out of town toward home.
33:50
Speaker 1: A short distance down the main boulevard, the wheel again
33:53
Speaker 1: came off, and this time the damage could not be repaired.
33:56
Speaker 1: There was nothing for it but to wait until morning,
33:58
Speaker 1: and it was at his conclate group that wandered about
34:01
Speaker 1: all the hotels were full of Finally, a YMCA hut
34:05
Speaker 1: made some of us welcome. We set about reading and
34:07
Speaker 1: talking until we dozed off in our chairs. The next morning,
34:11
Speaker 1: we got a new wheel and ran gingerly the sixty
34:13
Speaker 1: five miles back to regale the others with enviable tales
34:17
Speaker 1: of our pre Christmas festivities. End up chapter two, Chapter
34:28
Speaker 1: three of Life in a Tank by Richard Haig. This
34:32
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter three latter
34:37
Speaker 1: days of training. Well, thank Heaven, that sweats over, said
34:41
Speaker 1: the old bird. The night we finished our tank course
34:43
Speaker 1: and had our celebration, he stretched juriously. Yes, but you're
34:47
Speaker 1: starting off again on the gun tomorrow morning, said the Major, cheerfully.
34:51
Speaker 1: The old bird protested, but I can have a few
34:53
Speaker 1: days rest, sir, can I, he said sorrowfully. The Major laughed, No,
34:57
Speaker 1: you can't. You're down, so you'll have to go through
34:59
Speaker 1: with it. So for three days we sat in the
35:02
Speaker 1: open in the driving sleep from half past eight in
35:04
Speaker 1: the morning until half past four in the afternoon, learning
35:07
Speaker 1: the gun. On the fourth day we finished off our
35:10
Speaker 1: course with firing on the range. Surprising as it may seem,
35:13
Speaker 1: after two or three rounds we could hit the very
35:15
Speaker 1: smallest object at a distance of four or five hundred yards.
35:19
Speaker 1: How many more courses must we go through? Asked the
35:21
Speaker 1: old Bird of Rigden, as they strolled back one evening
35:24
Speaker 1: from the range. The old Bird was always interested in
35:27
Speaker 1: how much, or rather how little work he had before him.
35:30
Speaker 1: There's a machine gun the signaling course. You'll have to
35:34
Speaker 1: work hard on that, but I know you don't object.
35:36
Speaker 1: And also revolver practice. Aren't you thrilled? No, I'm not grumbled.
35:40
Speaker 1: The old bird life isn't worth living with all this
35:43
Speaker 1: work to do. I wish we could get into action,
35:46
Speaker 1: so do, I said Talbot, joining them. But while we're waiting,
35:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't you rather be back here with good warm billets
35:51
Speaker 1: and a comfortable bed and plenty to eat instead of
35:54
Speaker 1: sitting in a wet trench with the infantry. He remembered
35:57
Speaker 1: an old man in his regiment who had been with
35:58
Speaker 1: the Salvation Army. At home. He would stump along on
36:01
Speaker 1: his flat feet, trudging miles with his pack on his back,
36:04
Speaker 1: and Talbot had never heard him complain. He was bad
36:07
Speaker 1: at drill, he could never get the orders of formations
36:10
Speaker 1: through his head. Talbot had often lost patience with him,
36:13
Speaker 1: but the old fellow was always cheerful. One morning, in
36:16
Speaker 1: front of a palm, after a night of terrible cold,
36:19
Speaker 1: the old man could not move. Talbot tried to cheer
36:22
Speaker 1: him up and to help him, but he said feebly,
36:24
Speaker 1: I think I'm done for I don't believe I shall
36:27
Speaker 1: ever get warm, But never mind, sir, And in a
36:29
Speaker 1: few minutes he died as uncomplainingly as he had lived.
36:34
Speaker 1: You're right, of course, Talbot, the old bird said, we're
36:37
Speaker 1: very well off here. But I say, how should I
36:39
Speaker 1: like to be down in Bourlogne for a few days?
36:42
Speaker 1: And until they reached the miss the old Bird diletated
36:44
Speaker 1: on the charm of Bourlogne and all the luxuries he
36:47
Speaker 1: would indulge in the next time he visited the city.
36:51
Speaker 1: The rest of that week found us each day parading
36:53
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock in the courtyard of the hospice, and
36:56
Speaker 1: after introduction, the various parties marched off to their several duties.
37:00
Speaker 1: Some of us went to the tank drone, some of
37:02
Speaker 1: us to the hills overlooking historic Agincourt, and others to
37:06
Speaker 1: the barn by the railroad, where we practiced with the guns.
37:09
Speaker 1: Another party accompanied Borwick to a scheduled spot where he
37:12
Speaker 1: drive them the machine gun practice. Borwick was as skilful
37:15
Speaker 1: with a machine gun as with a piano. That was
37:18
Speaker 1: the highest praise one could give him. That night, it
37:22
Speaker 1: Missed Goule said, suddenly, tomorrow's a half day, isn't it.
37:26
Speaker 1: Of course, wake up, you idiot, said Talbert. We're playing
37:28
Speaker 1: Jay Company at soccer, and on Sunday we're playing all
37:31
Speaker 1: at Rugger two strenuous days before us are you feeling fit?
37:35
Speaker 1: Goule was feeling most awfully fit. In fact, he assured
37:38
Speaker 1: the mess that he alone was a match for Jay Company.
37:42
Speaker 1: Our soccer team was made up almost entirely of men
37:44
Speaker 1: who had been professional players. We had great pride in them,
37:48
Speaker 1: so that on the following afternoon, an eager crowd streamed
37:51
Speaker 1: out of the village to our football field, which we
37:53
Speaker 1: had selected with great care. It was as flat as
37:56
Speaker 1: a cricket pitch. A year ago it had been plowed
37:59
Speaker 1: as part of the French farm, and now here were
38:01
Speaker 1: the English playing football. Before the game began, there was
38:04
Speaker 1: a good deal of cheerful chafing on the respective merits
38:07
Speaker 1: of Jay and K Company teams. And when the play
38:10
Speaker 1: was in progress and savage yells rent the air, the
38:13
Speaker 1: French villagers looked on in wonder and pity. They had
38:16
Speaker 1: always believed the English to be mad. Now they were
38:18
Speaker 1: convinced of it. From the outset. However, J Company was
38:22
Speaker 1: hopelessly outclassed, and wishing to be generous to a failing foe,
38:26
Speaker 1: we ceased our wild cheering. J Company, on the other hand,
38:29
Speaker 1: wishing to exhort their team to greater efforts made up
38:32
Speaker 1: for our moderation, with the result that our allies were
38:35
Speaker 1: firmly convinced that J Company had won the game. If not,
38:39
Speaker 1: why should they dance up and down and wave their
38:41
Speaker 1: hats and shriek, And even the score five to one
38:44
Speaker 1: in favor of K Company failed to convince them entirely.
38:47
Speaker 1: But Kay went home to a hilarious tea with a
38:50
Speaker 1: sense of work well done in one of the Rugger game.
38:54
Speaker 1: The next day, let us draw a veil over it,
38:57
Speaker 1: suffoiceod to say that the French congratulated K Company over
39:00
Speaker 1: the outcome of that although the score was twelve to
39:03
Speaker 1: three in favor of Jay. We awoke on Monday morning
39:07
Speaker 1: with a delightful feeling that something pleasant was going to
39:10
Speaker 1: happen for all the world, the same sensation we used
39:13
Speaker 1: to experience on waking on our birthday, and suddenly remembering
39:17
Speaker 1: that gifts were sure to appear and that there would
39:19
Speaker 1: be something rather special for Tea. By the time full
39:23
Speaker 1: consciousness returned, we remembered that this was the day when,
39:26
Speaker 1: for the first time, the tank was to be set
39:29
Speaker 1: in motion. Even the old bird was eager. We hurry
39:33
Speaker 1: off to the tank drom one after another. We slide
39:36
Speaker 1: in through the little door and are swallowed up. The
39:38
Speaker 1: door was bolted behind the last to enter. Officer and
39:41
Speaker 1: drivers slip into their respective seats. The steel shutters of
39:45
Speaker 1: the portholes clicked as they are opened. The gunners take
39:48
Speaker 1: their positions. The driver opens this rottle a little and
39:51
Speaker 1: tickles the carburetor, and the engine is started up. The
39:54
Speaker 1: driver raises the engine a moment to warm her up.
39:57
Speaker 1: The officer reaches out a hand and signals for the
40:00
Speaker 1: first speed on each gear. The driver throws his lever
40:03
Speaker 1: into first. He opens the throttle. The tank our Willie moves.
40:08
Speaker 1: Supposing you were locked in a steel box with neither
40:10
Speaker 1: portholes to look through nor air holes to breathe from.
40:13
Speaker 1: Supposing you felt the steel box begin to move, and
40:16
Speaker 1: of course we're unable to see where you were going.
40:19
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the sensation? Then you can guess the
40:21
Speaker 1: feelings of the men in the tank, accepting the officer
40:25
Speaker 1: and driver who can see ahead through their portholes. When
40:28
Speaker 1: the monster gets underway, there are times, of course, with
40:31
Speaker 1: the bullets flying thick and fast, when all portholes for officer,
40:34
Speaker 1: driver and gunners must be closed. Then we plunge ahead,
40:38
Speaker 1: taking an occasional glimpse through the special pinpoint holes. Thirty
40:43
Speaker 1: tons of steel rolls along with its human freight. Suddenly
40:47
Speaker 1: the driver rings a bell. He presses another button and
40:49
Speaker 1: signals the driver of the right hand track into neutral.
40:53
Speaker 1: This disconnects the track from the engine. The tank swings
40:56
Speaker 1: around to the right. The right hand driver gets the
40:58
Speaker 1: signal first speed, and we are off again at a
41:01
Speaker 1: right angle to our former direction. Now we are headed
41:04
Speaker 1: for a gentle slope across the field, and as we
41:07
Speaker 1: approach it, the tank digs her nose into the base
41:09
Speaker 1: of the hill. She crawls up. The men in the
41:12
Speaker 1: rear tip back and enjoy it hugely. If the hill
41:14
Speaker 1: is steep enough, they may even find themselves lying flat
41:17
Speaker 1: on their backs or standing on their heads, but no
41:20
Speaker 1: such luck. Presently they are standing as nearly upright as
41:23
Speaker 1: it is ever possible to stand, and the tank is
41:25
Speaker 1: balancing on the top of the slope. The driver is
41:28
Speaker 1: not expert as yet, and we go over with an
41:30
Speaker 1: awful jolt and tumble forward. This is rare fun, but
41:34
Speaker 1: the instructor is not pleased. We must try it all
41:37
Speaker 1: over again, So back again, to attack the hill a
41:39
Speaker 1: second time. The top has reached once more, and we
41:42
Speaker 1: balance there. The driver throws out his clutch and we
41:45
Speaker 1: slip over very gently and carefully. He lets the clutch
41:48
Speaker 1: in again, and down we go. The willy flounders around
41:51
Speaker 1: for a fraction of a second. Then nothing donted. She
41:54
Speaker 1: starts off once more. We have visions of her sweeping
41:57
Speaker 1: all before her, some day far behind the German line.
42:00
Speaker 1: Three or four weeks of this sort of thing, and
42:02
Speaker 1: we are hardened to it. Our reward came at last. However,
42:06
Speaker 1: after a mess one morning, when the conversation had consisted
42:09
Speaker 1: mainly of the question when are we going into a show?
42:12
Speaker 1: With no answer to the question, we were called into
42:14
Speaker 1: the major's room, where he told us and strict his secrecy,
42:18
Speaker 1: that in about three weeks a big attack was to
42:20
Speaker 1: come off we should go in. At last. For the
42:23
Speaker 1: next two or three weeks we studied maps and aeroplane photographs,
42:27
Speaker 1: marking out our roots, starting points, rear ammunition dumps, forward dumps,
42:32
Speaker 1: and lines of supply. At last, then our goal loomed up,
42:35
Speaker 1: and these months of training, for the most part, interesting
42:38
Speaker 1: but at times terribly boring, would bear fruit. Two direct
42:42
Speaker 1: results were noticeable now on looking back to the time
42:45
Speaker 1: when we first joined. First, each man in the battagion
42:48
Speaker 1: knew how to run a tank, how to affect slight repairs,
42:51
Speaker 1: how to work the guns, and how to obtain the
42:53
Speaker 1: best results from the machine. Second, and very important, was
42:57
Speaker 1: the fact that the men and officers had got together.
42:59
Speaker 1: The crews and officers of each section knew and trusted
43:02
Speaker 1: each other. The strangeness of the feeling that was apparent
43:05
Speaker 1: in the first days had now entirely disappeared, and that
43:08
Speaker 1: cohesion of units, which is so essential in warfare, had
43:11
Speaker 1: been accomplished. Each of us knew the other's faults and
43:15
Speaker 1: the mistakes he was prone to make. More important, still,
43:18
Speaker 1: we knew our own faults and weaknesses, and had the
43:20
Speaker 1: courage to carry on and overcome them. A few nights
43:24
Speaker 1: before we moved up the line, we gave a grand
43:26
Speaker 1: concert Bulwick, and the Old Bird planned it. On an
43:29
Speaker 1: occasion of this sort. The old Bird never grumbled at
43:32
Speaker 1: the amount of work he was obliged to do, some
43:35
Speaker 1: which before. We had bought a piano from one of
43:37
Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the village, and the piano was naturally
43:40
Speaker 1: the piece. To resistance of the concert, The old Bird
43:44
Speaker 1: went around for days at a time, humming scraps of
43:46
Speaker 1: music with unintelligible words, which had afterwards developed at the
43:49
Speaker 1: concert were awfully good songs of his own composing. The
43:53
Speaker 1: Italian tailor was called in to make up rough piole costumes.
43:57
Speaker 1: The Old Bird drilled us until we begged for mercy,
44:00
Speaker 1: while Borwick strummed untiringly at the piano. At last the
44:03
Speaker 1: great night arrived. A stage had been built at one
44:06
Speaker 1: end of a hangar and curtains hung up. The whole
44:09
Speaker 1: staff and h Q had been invited, and the Mire
44:11
Speaker 1: of the Cure, the med sign of the village and
44:13
Speaker 1: their families were also to attend. Promptly at eight o'clock
44:17
Speaker 1: the concert began, with Bolwick at the piano. Everything went
44:21
Speaker 1: off without a hitch. Although k company provided most of
44:24
Speaker 1: the talent, the battalion shared the honors of the entertainment.
44:27
Speaker 1: Each song had a chorus, and so appreciative was our
44:29
Speaker 1: audience that the choruses were repeated again and again. The
44:33
Speaker 1: one lady of the troop looked charming, and she arranged
44:35
Speaker 1: for her voice to be entirely in keeping with her dress.
44:38
Speaker 1: And paint. The French spectators enjoyed as hugely. They were
44:42
Speaker 1: a great encouragement, for they laughed at everything uproariously, though
44:45
Speaker 1: it could not have been due to their understanding of
44:47
Speaker 1: the jokes. At ten o'clock we finished off with God
44:50
Speaker 1: Save the King and went back to our billets, feeling
44:53
Speaker 1: that our stay in the village had been splendidly rounded off.
44:58
Speaker 1: End of chapter three, chapter four of Life in a
45:08
Speaker 1: Tank by Richard Haig. This LibriVox recording is in the
45:12
Speaker 1: public domain. Moving up the line. Two or three days
45:17
Speaker 1: before we were due to leave, we had received orders
45:19
Speaker 1: to pack our surplus kit and have it at the
45:22
Speaker 1: quartermaster's stores at a certain time. We drew a long breath.
45:26
Speaker 1: This meant that the actual date, which up to the
45:28
Speaker 1: present had been somewhat indefinite, was close at hand. We
45:32
Speaker 1: were given orders to draw our tanks, and the whole
45:34
Speaker 1: company was marched over to work sheds about two miles
45:37
Speaker 1: away at e where the tanks and stores were issued.
45:41
Speaker 1: The variety and number of things which it is necessary
45:44
Speaker 1: to draw when fitting out a tank for action is inconceivable. Tools,
45:48
Speaker 1: small spares, pirenes, electric lamps, clocks, binoculars, telescopes, petrol and
45:54
Speaker 1: oil funnels, oil squirts, grease guns, machine guns, headlights, tail lamps,
45:59
Speaker 1: steel halls, crowbars, shovels, picks, inspection lamps, and last, but
46:04
Speaker 1: not least, ammunition. The field gun ammunition has to be
46:07
Speaker 1: taken out of its boxes and placed in the shell
46:09
Speaker 1: racks inside the tank. The SAA small arms ammunition must
46:14
Speaker 1: be removed from its boxes and stacked away. At the
46:17
Speaker 1: same time, every single round before being put into the
46:20
Speaker 1: drum must be gauged. All this had to be done
46:22
Speaker 1: in the last two or three days, and everything must
46:25
Speaker 1: be checked and countersigned. There is always a great deal
46:28
Speaker 1: of fun for tank commanders in drawing their stores. It
46:30
Speaker 1: is a temptation, when in the midst of all these
46:33
Speaker 1: thousands of articles, to seize the opportunity when no one
46:36
Speaker 1: is looking, to pocket a few extra spares and dainty
46:39
Speaker 1: little tools, not of course for one's own personal benefit,
46:43
Speaker 1: but simply because such things are always being lost or stolen,
46:46
Speaker 1: and it is exasperating, to say the least, to find
46:49
Speaker 1: oneself at a critical moment without some article which it
46:52
Speaker 1: is impossible to duplicate at the time. During these last
46:56
Speaker 1: few days, it was a continual march for the men
46:59
Speaker 1: from B to E E. Very often they were called
47:02
Speaker 1: back when their day's work was over to draw some
47:04
Speaker 1: new article or make some alteration which had been forgotten
47:07
Speaker 1: at the time they were in the workshops. At last, however,
47:10
Speaker 1: on the third day following the grand concert, the kits
47:13
Speaker 1: were packed and loaded onto the lorries and sent off
47:16
Speaker 1: to eat. The troops said good bye to the village,
47:18
Speaker 1: which had been such a happy home and school during
47:20
Speaker 1: that winter of nineteen sixteen, and the officers made their
47:23
Speaker 1: fond adues to the mothers and daughters of the houses
47:26
Speaker 1: in which they had been billeted. The companies formed up
47:30
Speaker 1: and marched along to the workshops. Everyone was in high
47:33
Speaker 1: spirits and there was a friendly race to see which
47:36
Speaker 1: company of the battalion could load up their tanks in
47:38
Speaker 1: the shortest time on to the specially constructed steel trucks.
47:42
Speaker 1: A few days before all these activities commenced, Talbot and
47:46
Speaker 1: another tank commander had gone on to the tank's ultimate destination,
47:50
Speaker 1: a a village which had been evacuated a few days
47:52
Speaker 1: before by the Germans on their now famous retirement to
47:55
Speaker 1: the Hindenburg Line. It was a most extraordinary sight to
47:58
Speaker 1: ride along the road from out Albert to Bapam, which
48:01
Speaker 1: during the summer and winter of that preceding year had
48:04
Speaker 1: witnessed such heavy fighting. The whole countryside on each side
48:07
Speaker 1: of the road was a desolate vista of shell holes.
48:10
Speaker 1: As far as the eye could see. Where villages had been,
48:12
Speaker 1: there was now no trace left of any sort of habitation.
48:15
Speaker 1: One might think that, however heavy a bombardment, some trace
48:19
Speaker 1: would be left of the village which had suffered. There
48:21
Speaker 1: was literally nothing left of the village through which we
48:24
Speaker 1: had run the road They were now traveling over this
48:26
Speaker 1: scarred stretch of country were doted camps and groups of
48:29
Speaker 1: huts with duck boards crossing the old shell holes, some
48:33
Speaker 1: of which were still full of water. On approaching Bee,
48:36
Speaker 1: they saw traces everywhere of the methodical and organized methods
48:40
Speaker 1: by which the Germans had retired. The first sign was
48:43
Speaker 1: a huge shell crater in the middle of the road,
48:45
Speaker 1: about forty feet deep, which the Boshe had arranged to
48:48
Speaker 1: prevent armored cars from following him up. If they did succeed,
48:52
Speaker 1: the transports would be delayed in reaching them. At all events,
48:56
Speaker 1: these holes were rather a nuisance, for the road itself
48:59
Speaker 1: was a mass of lesser shell craters, and the soft
49:01
Speaker 1: ground on each side was impassable. The road was crowded
49:05
Speaker 1: with engineers and labor battalions, building in shell holes and
49:08
Speaker 1: laying railways into the outskirts of a an a. The
49:12
Speaker 1: old German notices were still standing, as they had been left.
49:16
Speaker 1: Strung across the road on a wire was a notice
49:18
Speaker 1: which read for a whig not by hogueness. Every house
49:21
Speaker 1: in town had been pulled down. The wily Bosch had
49:24
Speaker 1: not even blown them up. Instead, he had saved explosives
49:28
Speaker 1: by attaching steel hawsers to the houses, and by means
49:31
Speaker 1: of tractors had pulled them down so that the roof
49:34
Speaker 1: and sides fell in on the foundation. Every pump handling
49:38
Speaker 1: the village had been broken off short, and not a
49:40
Speaker 1: single piece of furniture was left behind. Later we found
49:43
Speaker 1: the furniture from this and other villages in the Hindenburg Line.
49:47
Speaker 1: Saddest of all, however, was the destruction of the beautiful
49:51
Speaker 1: poplar trees which once bordered the long French roads built
49:54
Speaker 1: by Napoleon. These had been sawn off at their base
49:57
Speaker 1: and allowed to fall on the side of the road,
49:59
Speaker 1: not across it, as one might suppose if they had
50:01
Speaker 1: been allowed to fall across the road, the Boshe himself
50:04
Speaker 1: would have been hindered. In his last preparations for his retreat.
50:08
Speaker 1: Everything was done with military ends in view. The villages
50:11
Speaker 1: were left in such a condition as to make them uninhabitable,
50:14
Speaker 1: the more to add to our discomfort and to make
50:16
Speaker 1: our hardship severe. The trees were cut down only on
50:20
Speaker 1: those parts of the road which were screened from observation
50:23
Speaker 1: by his balloons and present trenches. In some places where
50:26
Speaker 1: the road dipped into a valley, the trees had been
50:28
Speaker 1: left untouched. At the place where our tanks were scheduled
50:32
Speaker 1: to arrive, and which had lately been a railhead of
50:34
Speaker 1: the Bosh, all the metals had been torn up, and
50:37
Speaker 1: in order to destroy the station itself, he had smashed
50:40
Speaker 1: the cast iron pillars which supported the roof, and in
50:43
Speaker 1: consequence the whole building had fallen in. But nothing daunted.
50:47
Speaker 1: The British engineers were even now working at top speed
50:50
Speaker 1: laying down new line. Some of the metals, which a
50:53
Speaker 1: few short weeks before had been lying in countless stacks
50:55
Speaker 1: on the quays at the bases, now unrolled themselves at
50:58
Speaker 1: a rate of about two and a quarter miles a day.
51:02
Speaker 1: One interesting feature of this rapid track laying was that
51:04
Speaker 1: when the tank train left E on its two and
51:07
Speaker 1: a half day's journey down to the rail headed a,
51:09
Speaker 1: the track on which the train was to run was
51:11
Speaker 1: not completed into a but nevertheless the track arrived ahead
51:15
Speaker 1: of the train, which was the main point. As they
51:18
Speaker 1: rode into the village of a talbot and his companion
51:21
Speaker 1: came across still further evidence of the steps which the
51:24
Speaker 1: German will take to inconvenience his enemy. In order to
51:28
Speaker 1: battle against the hordes of rats which were so prevalent
51:30
Speaker 1: in the old parts of the line in France, the
51:33
Speaker 1: bish breede cast in enormous numbers. Yet, in order to
51:36
Speaker 1: carry out to the limit his idea that nothing of
51:38
Speaker 1: value should fall into our hands, he had killed every
51:41
Speaker 1: cat in the village and every house. Three or four
51:43
Speaker 1: of these poor little creatures lay around with their heads
51:45
Speaker 1: chopped off. Tabby cats, black cats, white cats, and little kittens,
51:50
Speaker 1: all dead. Farther on, over a well at the corner
51:53
Speaker 1: of the main square was posted a sign which read
51:55
Speaker 1: this wellest poison, do not touch by order r E.
52:01
Speaker 1: Here and there a house had been left intact, with
52:03
Speaker 1: its furniture untouched. It was not until later that it
52:06
Speaker 1: struck us as peculiar that these houses had been spared
52:09
Speaker 1: from the general destruction. Two or three days later, however,
52:13
Speaker 1: after we had moved in and headquarters had been established,
52:15
Speaker 1: we discovered that under many of these houses and its
52:18
Speaker 1: certain cross roads which had not been blown up in
52:20
Speaker 1: the usual manner, the Boche had left mines time to
52:23
Speaker 1: go off at any time. Up to twenty eight days.
52:27
Speaker 1: One could never be sure that the ground underneath one's
52:29
Speaker 1: feet would not blow up at any moment. These mines
52:32
Speaker 1: were small boxes of high explosive inside of which was
52:35
Speaker 1: a little middle tube with a trigger and detonator. Attached.
52:38
Speaker 1: Inside the tube was a powerful acid, which, when it
52:41
Speaker 1: had eaten its way through, set free the trigger and
52:44
Speaker 1: exploded the charge. The length of time it took for
52:46
Speaker 1: the mine to explode was gaged by the strength or
52:49
Speaker 1: weakness of the acid in the tube. We were also
52:52
Speaker 1: impressed with a mechanical genius of the German. The Boch
52:55
Speaker 1: had made a veritable mechanical toy of nearly every house
52:58
Speaker 1: in the village which he had paid. Delightful little surprises
53:02
Speaker 1: had been prepared for us everywhere. Kick a harmless piece
53:05
Speaker 1: of wood, and in a few seconds a bomb exploded.
53:08
Speaker 1: Pick up a bit of string from the floor, and
53:11
Speaker 1: another bomb went off. Soon we learned to be wary
53:13
Speaker 1: of the most innocent objects before touching anything. We made
53:17
Speaker 1: elaborate preparations for our safety. One of the men was
53:20
Speaker 1: greatly annoyed by a wire which hung over his head
53:23
Speaker 1: when he was asleep, but he did not wish to
53:25
Speaker 1: remove it. He had decided that it was connected with
53:28
Speaker 1: some devilish device which would do him no good. Finally,
53:31
Speaker 1: one morning he could endure this sword of Damocles no longer.
53:35
Speaker 1: With two boon companions, he carefully attached the string about
53:38
Speaker 1: fifteen yards long to the wire. They tiptoed gently out
53:42
Speaker 1: of the house to a discreet distance, and with a
53:44
Speaker 1: yell of triumph, the hero pulled the string and nothing happened.
53:49
Speaker 1: But there was another side to all this. Mc nutt
53:51
Speaker 1: some time afterwards came in with an interesting story. Some sappers,
53:55
Speaker 1: he said, had been digging under a house in the village,
53:58
Speaker 1: presumably for the mysterious reasons had always drive the engineers
54:01
Speaker 1: to dig in unlikely places. One of them pushed his
54:05
Speaker 1: shovel into what had been the cellar of the house,
54:07
Speaker 1: but as the roof had fallen in on the entrance,
54:09
Speaker 1: they did not know of its existence. When they finally
54:12
Speaker 1: forced their way in, they found two German officers and
54:15
Speaker 1: two French women in a terribly emaciated condition. One of
54:18
Speaker 1: the bosches and one of the women lay dead locked
54:20
Speaker 1: in each other's arms. The other two still breathed, but
54:23
Speaker 1: when they were brought up into the open, they expired
54:26
Speaker 1: within a few hours, without either of them giving an explanation.
54:30
Speaker 1: The only reason we could find for their terrible plight
54:32
Speaker 1: was that the women had been forced down there by
54:34
Speaker 1: the officers to undergo a last farewell while the Germans
54:37
Speaker 1: were destroying the village, and that the house had fallen
54:40
Speaker 1: in on top of them. Later, probably no one knew
54:43
Speaker 1: where they had disappeared, and they were unable to get
54:45
Speaker 1: out of the ruins or to make themselves heard. The
54:47
Speaker 1: village of A gained a romantic reputation after that, and
54:50
Speaker 1: it was curious to realize that we had been living
54:53
Speaker 1: there for days while this silent tragedy was being enacted.
54:57
Speaker 1: In addition to the destruction in the towns, the beautiful
54:59
Speaker 1: ord which are so numerous in France were ruined apple,
55:03
Speaker 1: pear and plum trees lay uprooted on the ground. And
55:05
Speaker 1: here again the military mind of the Germans had been
55:08
Speaker 1: at work. He did not wish the fruit that the
55:10
Speaker 1: trees would bear in the future to fall into our hands.
55:14
Speaker 1: But although the village was a pretty poor place in
55:16
Speaker 1: which to stay, the near presence of a b EF
55:18
Speaker 1: canteen was a comfort. It is always amazing to visit
55:22
Speaker 1: one of these places with him. Perhaps four or five
55:25
Speaker 1: miles of the firing line, we have stores selling everything
55:28
Speaker 1: from a silver cigarette case to a pair of boots,
55:31
Speaker 1: and everything too, at nearly cost price. The canteen provides
55:34
Speaker 1: almost every variety of smoking materials and eatables, and their
55:37
Speaker 1: only disadvantage is that they make packages from home seem
55:41
Speaker 1: so useless. As the tobaccos come straight out of bond,
55:44
Speaker 1: it is far cheaper to buy them at the canteen
55:46
Speaker 1: than to have them forwarded from home. These canteens are
55:50
Speaker 1: managed by the army and are dotted all over the
55:52
Speaker 1: country inhabited by the British troops. Since they have sprung
55:55
Speaker 1: into existence, life at the front has been far more
55:58
Speaker 1: comfortable and satisfy. Factory in France, and people at home
56:02
Speaker 1: were discovering that money is the best thing to send
56:05
Speaker 1: out to their men. Finally, one cold Sunday morning, about
56:08
Speaker 1: half past five, the tank train steamed slowly into a
56:11
Speaker 1: and drew up on a sighting. It was not possible
56:14
Speaker 1: to begin the work of unloading the tanks until night fell,
56:17
Speaker 1: so the tired crews turned into the roofless houses which
56:20
Speaker 1: had been prepared for them, and slept until dusk. When
56:23
Speaker 1: darkness fell, as if by magic, the town spraying to
56:25
Speaker 1: activity end of chapter four chapter five of Life in
56:36
Speaker 1: a Tank by Richard Haig. This LibriVox recording is in
56:41
Speaker 1: the public domain. Preparations for the ship. That night, the
56:46
Speaker 1: engines were started up, and one by one the tanks
56:49
Speaker 1: crawled off the train. Although the day had begun with
56:52
Speaker 1: brilliant sunshine, at dusk the snow had begun to fall,
56:56
Speaker 1: and by the time the tanks came off, the snow
56:58
Speaker 1: was a put thick on the ground. The tanks moved
57:00
Speaker 1: down to the temporary tank drone which had been decided
57:03
Speaker 1: upon near the railway, and the sponson trucks were towed there.
57:07
Speaker 1: The night was spent and fitting the sponsons to the
57:09
Speaker 1: size of the machines. It was bitterly cold. The sleep
57:12
Speaker 1: drove in upon us all night, stinging our hands and faces.
57:16
Speaker 1: Everything seemed to go wrong. We had the utmost difficulty
57:19
Speaker 1: in making the boat holes fit, and as each sponsor
57:22
Speaker 1: weighs about three tons, they were not easy to move
57:25
Speaker 1: and adjust. We drove ahead with the work, knowing that
57:28
Speaker 1: it must be done while the darkness lasted. Finally, about
57:31
Speaker 1: two hours before dawn broke, the last boat was fastened
57:35
Speaker 1: and the tanks were ready to move. The night was
57:37
Speaker 1: blacker than ever as they lumbered out of the tank
57:39
Speaker 1: drone and were led across the snow to a half
57:42
Speaker 1: way house about four miles from the railhead and an
57:44
Speaker 1: equal distance from the front line trenches. We had not
57:48
Speaker 1: quite reached our destination when the darkness began to lift
57:51
Speaker 1: in the east, and with feverish energy, we pushed ahead
57:54
Speaker 1: through the driving snow. Late that afternoon, Talbot was again
57:58
Speaker 1: sent ahead with five or six troopers in a lad
58:00
Speaker 1: to a village in the front line. It was necessary
58:03
Speaker 1: for us to spend three or four days there before
58:05
Speaker 1: the attack commenced, in order to study out the vulnerable
58:08
Speaker 1: points in the German line. We were to decide also
58:11
Speaker 1: the best routes for the tanks to take in coming
58:14
Speaker 1: up to the line, and those to be taken later
58:16
Speaker 1: in crossing no men's land. When the show was on,
58:19
Speaker 1: we rode across fields denuded of all trees. The country
58:22
Speaker 1: here was utterly unlike that to which we had been
58:25
Speaker 1: accustomed in peacetime trench warfare. This last expression sounds like
58:29
Speaker 1: an anomaly, but actually it means the life which is
58:32
Speaker 1: led in trenches, where one may go along for two
58:34
Speaker 1: or three months without attacking, in comparison with our existence
58:38
Speaker 1: when we are making an offensive. The former seemed to
58:41
Speaker 1: lifelike in peace times, hence the expression. But from this
58:44
Speaker 1: it must not be supposed that peacetime trench warfare is
58:48
Speaker 1: all beer and skittles. Quite the contrary. As a matter
58:51
Speaker 1: of fact, during four or five days in the trenches
58:54
Speaker 1: there may be as many casualties as during an attack,
58:57
Speaker 1: but taking it on an average, naturally, the losses and
58:59
Speaker 1: danys are greater when troops go over the top. Curiously enough, too,
59:04
Speaker 1: after one has been in an attack, the front line
59:06
Speaker 1: trench seems a haven of refuge. Gould, who was wounded
59:10
Speaker 1: in the leg during a battle on the Somme crawled
59:12
Speaker 1: into a shell hold. It was a blessed relief to
59:15
Speaker 1: be lying there, Even though the bullets were whistling overhead.
59:19
Speaker 1: At first he felt no pain, and he wished vaguely
59:21
Speaker 1: that he had brought a magazine along to read. All
59:24
Speaker 1: through the burning summer day, he stayed there, waiting for
59:26
Speaker 1: the night. As soon as it was dark, he wiggled
59:29
Speaker 1: back to our trenches, tumbled over the parapet of the
59:31
Speaker 1: front line trench, and narrowly escaped, falling on the point
59:35
Speaker 1: of a bayonet. But he never forgets the feeling of
59:38
Speaker 1: perfect safety and peace at being back, even in an
59:41
Speaker 1: exposed trench with friends. The fields across which we rode
59:45
Speaker 1: had been plowed the preceding autumn of the French civilians. Later,
59:49
Speaker 1: when the snow had disappeared, we could see where the
59:51
Speaker 1: ground had been torn up by the horses of a
59:53
Speaker 1: German riding school of ten days before. On some of
59:56
Speaker 1: the roads, the rusts and heavy marks of the retreating
59:59
Speaker 1: German transport could be seen. It was a new and
1:00:02
Speaker 1: exciting experience to ride along a road which only two
1:00:05
Speaker 1: or three days before had been traversed by the Germans,
1:00:08
Speaker 1: and a retreat even though they called it a retirement.
1:00:11
Speaker 1: The thought was very pleasant to men who for the
1:00:13
Speaker 1: last two years had been sitting in front of the
1:00:15
Speaker 1: Bosche month after month, and who even in an attack,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: had been unable to find traces of foot hoo for
1:00:20
Speaker 1: wheel mart because of the olif facing shell fire. Here
1:00:24
Speaker 1: and there were places where the Bosche had had his
1:00:26
Speaker 1: watering troughs, and also the traces of scattered huts and
1:00:29
Speaker 1: tents on the ground where the grass of a yellowish
1:00:32
Speaker 1: green still showed the front line of the fence. Here
1:00:35
Speaker 1: was really no front line at all, but was merely
1:00:37
Speaker 1: held as an open warfare by outposts, sentry groups and patrols.
1:00:42
Speaker 1: At night, it was the easiest thing in the world
1:00:44
Speaker 1: to lose oneself close up to the line and wander
1:00:46
Speaker 1: into the German trenches. In fact, over the whole of
1:00:50
Speaker 1: this country, where every landmark had been destroyed, and where,
1:00:52
Speaker 1: owing to the weather, the roads were a little different
1:00:55
Speaker 1: from the soil on each side, a man could lose
1:00:57
Speaker 1: himself and find no person or any sign to give
1:01:00
Speaker 1: him his direction. The usual guide, which one might derive
1:01:03
Speaker 1: from the verey lights going up between the lines, was
1:01:06
Speaker 1: here non existed, as both sides kept extremely quiet. Even
1:01:10
Speaker 1: the guns were comparatively noiseless in these days, and were
1:01:14
Speaker 1: a man to find himself at night alone upon this ground,
1:01:17
Speaker 1: which lay between two and three miles behind our lines,
1:01:20
Speaker 1: the only thing he could do would be to lie
1:01:21
Speaker 1: down and wait for the dawn to show him the direction.
1:01:25
Speaker 1: As we rode toward O, our only guide was a
1:01:28
Speaker 1: few white houses two or three miles away on the
1:01:30
Speaker 1: edge of the village. The German had not evacuated O
1:01:33
Speaker 1: of his own free will, but a certain fighting division
1:01:36
Speaker 1: had taken the village two days before and driven the
1:01:39
Speaker 1: German out when he retired three or four hundred yards
1:01:41
Speaker 1: to his rear Hindenburg line. The probable reason why he
1:01:45
Speaker 1: hung on to this village, which was really in front
1:01:47
Speaker 1: of his line of advance, was because at the time
1:01:49
Speaker 1: he decided to retire on the Psalm, the Hindenburgh line
1:01:52
Speaker 1: was incomplete. In fact, the boss could still be seen
1:01:55
Speaker 1: working on his wire and trenches. We arrived at oh
1:01:58
Speaker 1: at nightfall. Some batteries were behind the village and the
1:02:01
Speaker 1: Germans were giving the village and the guns a rather
1:02:04
Speaker 1: nasty time. Unhappily for us, the Bosh artillery were dropping
1:02:07
Speaker 1: five nines on the road which led into the village,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: and as they seemed unlikely to desist, we decided to
1:02:13
Speaker 1: make a dash horse. The horses were a bit nervous
1:02:16
Speaker 1: of behaving very well under the trying circumstances. With us
1:02:20
Speaker 1: were some lumbers bringing up ammunition. Shells were exploding all
1:02:23
Speaker 1: around us. It would never do to stand still. The
1:02:27
Speaker 1: dash up that hundred yards of road was an unpleasant experience.
1:02:31
Speaker 1: As we made the rush, the gunners tearing along help
1:02:33
Speaker 1: or leather, and the others galloping ahead on their plunging horses,
1:02:37
Speaker 1: we heard the dull whistle in the nearer roar of
1:02:39
Speaker 1: two shells approaching. Instinctively, we leaned forward. We held our breath.
1:02:43
Speaker 1: When a shell drops near, there is always the feeling
1:02:46
Speaker 1: that it is going to fall on one's head. We
1:02:48
Speaker 1: flattened ourselves out and urged our horses to greater speed.
1:02:52
Speaker 1: The shells exploded about thirty yards behind us, killing two
1:02:55
Speaker 1: gunners and their mules, while the rest of us scrambled
1:02:57
Speaker 1: into the village and under cover in the darkness, we
1:03:01
Speaker 1: found what had once been the shop of a village blacksmith,
1:03:04
Speaker 1: and in the forge we tied up our horses. It
1:03:07
Speaker 1: was bitterly cold. It was either make a fire and trust,
1:03:10
Speaker 1: or look that it would not be observed or freezed.
1:03:12
Speaker 1: We decided on the fire, and in its grateful warmth
1:03:15
Speaker 1: we lay down to snatch the first hours of sleep
1:03:17
Speaker 1: we had had in nearly three days. But the German
1:03:20
Speaker 1: gunners were most inconsiderate, and a short time afterward they
1:03:23
Speaker 1: dropped the small barage down on the road. The front
1:03:26
Speaker 1: of our forge was open, and we were obliged to
1:03:28
Speaker 1: flatten ourselves on the ground to prevent the flying splinters
1:03:31
Speaker 1: from hitting us. When this diversion was over, we stirred
1:03:35
Speaker 1: up the fire and made some tea, just in time
1:03:37
Speaker 1: to offer some to a gun or sergeant who came
1:03:39
Speaker 1: riding up. He hitched his horse to one of the
1:03:42
Speaker 1: posts and sat down with us by the fire. The
1:03:44
Speaker 1: shell fire had quieted down, and we dozed off, glad
1:03:47
Speaker 1: of the interlude. Suddenly a shell burst close behind us.
1:03:51
Speaker 1: The poor beast, waiting patiently for his rider, was hid
1:03:54
Speaker 1: in the neck by the shrapnel, but hardly a sound
1:03:56
Speaker 1: escaped him. In war, especially, one cannot help it ring
1:04:00
Speaker 1: the stoicism of horses as compared with other animals. One
1:04:04
Speaker 1: sees examples of it on all sides, trapped, for instance,
1:04:07
Speaker 1: on a dog's foot, and he runs away squealing. A
1:04:10
Speaker 1: horse is struck by a large lump of shrapnel just
1:04:12
Speaker 1: under its withers, and the poor beast trembles but makes
1:04:15
Speaker 1: no sound. Almost the only time the horses scream, and
1:04:18
Speaker 1: the sounds horrible is when they are dying. Then they
1:04:21
Speaker 1: shrieked from sheer pain and fear. Strange as it may seem,
1:04:25
Speaker 1: one is often more affected by seeing horses struck than
1:04:27
Speaker 1: when men are killed. Somehow they seem so particularly helpless.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: It was during these days at O that Talbot discovered Johnson.
1:04:36
Speaker 1: Johnson was one of his orderlies. Although it did not
1:04:38
Speaker 1: lie in the path of his duty, he took the
1:04:40
Speaker 1: greatest delight in doing all sorts of little odd jobs
1:04:43
Speaker 1: for Talbot. So unobtrusive he was about it all that
1:04:46
Speaker 1: for some time Talbot hardly noticed that someone was trying
1:04:49
Speaker 1: to make him comfortable. When he did, by mutual agreement,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: Johnson became his servant and faithful follower Through everything. The
1:04:57
Speaker 1: man was perfectly casual and apparently unaffected by the hi
1:05:00
Speaker 1: as shell fire. It is absurd to say that a
1:05:02
Speaker 1: man doesn't mind shell fire. Everyone dislikes it and gets
1:05:06
Speaker 1: nervous under it. The man who doesn't mind it is
1:05:08
Speaker 1: the man who fights his nervousness and gets such control
1:05:11
Speaker 1: of himself that he is able to appear as if
1:05:14
Speaker 1: he were unaffected. Between not minding it in appearing to
1:05:17
Speaker 1: not mind it lie hard won moral battles, increased strength
1:05:20
Speaker 1: of character, and victory over fear. Johnson had accomplished this.
1:05:25
Speaker 1: He preserved an attitude of careless calm, and could walk
1:05:28
Speaker 1: down a road with shells bursting all around him, with
1:05:30
Speaker 1: a sublime indifference that was inspiring between him and his
1:05:33
Speaker 1: officer sprang up an extraordinary and lasting affection. The wretched
1:05:37
Speaker 1: night in the forge at last came to an end,
1:05:40
Speaker 1: and the next morning we looked around for more comfortable billets.
1:05:43
Speaker 1: We selected the cellar of a house in fairly good condition,
1:05:46
Speaker 1: and prepared to move in. When we discovered that we
1:05:49
Speaker 1: were not the first to whom it had appealed. Two
1:05:51
Speaker 1: dead Germans still occupied the premises, and when we had
1:05:55
Speaker 1: disposed of the bodies, we took up our residence here.
1:05:58
Speaker 1: We stayed, going out each day to find the best
1:06:01
Speaker 1: points from which to view No Man's Land, which lay
1:06:04
Speaker 1: in front of the village. With the aid of maps,
1:06:06
Speaker 1: we planned the best routes for the tanks to take
1:06:08
Speaker 1: when the battle should have begun. Not a detail was neglected.
1:06:13
Speaker 1: Then something happened to break the monotony of life. Just
1:06:17
Speaker 1: back of the village, one of our batteries was concealed
1:06:20
Speaker 1: in such a passion that it was impossible to find
1:06:23
Speaker 1: it from an aeroplane. Yet every day, regularly the battery
1:06:27
Speaker 1: was shelled. Every night under cover of the darkness, the
1:06:30
Speaker 1: position was changed and the battery concealed as cleverly as before,
1:06:34
Speaker 1: but to no avail. The only solution was that someone
1:06:38
Speaker 1: behind our lines was in communication with the Germans. Every day,
1:06:42
Speaker 1: secrecy was increased, guards were double to see that no
1:06:45
Speaker 1: one slipped through the lines. Signals were watched. The whole
1:06:48
Speaker 1: affair was baffling, and yet we could find no clue.
1:06:51
Speaker 1: Just in front of the wood where the battery was
1:06:53
Speaker 1: concealed stood an noble farmhouse where a genial frenchwoman lived
1:06:57
Speaker 1: and dispensed good cheer to us. She had none of
1:06:59
Speaker 1: the men of her own family, nor any farm hands
1:07:01
Speaker 1: to help her, but kept up the farm work all alone.
1:07:04
Speaker 1: Every day, usually in the middle of the morning, she
1:07:07
Speaker 1: went out to the fields behind her house and plowed
1:07:09
Speaker 1: with an old white horse drawing the plow. For some reason,
1:07:13
Speaker 1: she never plowed more than one or two furrows at
1:07:15
Speaker 1: a time, and when this was done, she drove the
1:07:17
Speaker 1: white horse back to the barn. One day, an officer
1:07:20
Speaker 1: noticed that a German plane hovered over the field while
1:07:24
Speaker 1: the woman was plowing, and that when she went back
1:07:26
Speaker 1: to the house the plane shot away. The next day,
1:07:29
Speaker 1: the same thing happened. Later in the day, the battery
1:07:32
Speaker 1: received its daily reminder from the bisch gunners as unerringly
1:07:35
Speaker 1: accurate as ever, here was a clue. The solution of
1:07:39
Speaker 1: the problem followed. The woman knew the position of the battery,
1:07:42
Speaker 1: and every day when she went out to plow, she
1:07:44
Speaker 1: drove the white horse up and down, making a furrow
1:07:47
Speaker 1: directly in front of the battery. When the men in
1:07:49
Speaker 1: the German plane saw the white horse, they flew overhead,
1:07:52
Speaker 1: took a photograph of the newly turned furrow, and turned
1:07:55
Speaker 1: the photograph over to their gunners. The rest was easy.
1:07:59
Speaker 1: The next day we missed three events which had become
1:08:01
Speaker 1: part of our daily life. The German plane no longer
1:08:04
Speaker 1: hovered in the air our battery. For the first time
1:08:07
Speaker 1: in weeks, spent a peaceful day, and in the field
1:08:10
Speaker 1: behind her house a woman with an old white horse
1:08:13
Speaker 1: no longer made the earth ready for sewing. For three
1:08:16
Speaker 1: days we had received no rations and were obliged to
1:08:19
Speaker 1: subsist on the food which the bish had left behind
1:08:21
Speaker 1: him when he fled. Finally, when all our plans were complete,
1:08:25
Speaker 1: we were notified that the point of attack had been
1:08:27
Speaker 1: shifted to End, a village about four miles away. This
1:08:31
Speaker 1: practical joke, we thought an extremely bad taste, but there
1:08:35
Speaker 1: was nothing court but to pack up and move as
1:08:37
Speaker 1: quickly as possible. We learned that our troops at End
1:08:40
Speaker 1: had tried twice to break through the German lines by bombing.
1:08:43
Speaker 1: A third attempt was to be made, and the tanks
1:08:46
Speaker 1: were depended upon to open the way, hence the change
1:08:49
Speaker 1: in our plans. Early the next morning we left oh
1:08:52
Speaker 1: and dashed along a road which lay parallel with our
1:08:55
Speaker 1: line and was under direct observation from the German trenches.
1:08:59
Speaker 1: Owing to the fact, probably that he was not properly
1:09:02
Speaker 1: settled in his new line. The box did not bother
1:09:04
Speaker 1: us much, excepting at one place where we were obliged
1:09:07
Speaker 1: to make a run for it. We arrived at end
1:09:10
Speaker 1: just after the tanks had been brought up. They were
1:09:12
Speaker 1: hurriedly concealed close up to the houses in cuttings and
1:09:16
Speaker 1: under trees. The show was scheduled to come off the
1:09:19
Speaker 1: next morning. At four thirty. That night, we gathered every
1:09:22
Speaker 1: gate headquarters and made the final plans. Each tank had
1:09:25
Speaker 1: its objective alloted to it and marked out on the
1:09:28
Speaker 1: tank commander's course. Each tank was to go just so
1:09:31
Speaker 1: far and no farther. Talbot and Darwin were detailed to
1:09:35
Speaker 1: go forward as far as possible on foot when the
1:09:37
Speaker 1: battle was in progress and send back messages as to
1:09:40
Speaker 1: how the show was progressing. Talbot was also given the
1:09:44
Speaker 1: task of going out that night to make the marks
1:09:46
Speaker 1: in no men's land which would guide the tanks in
1:09:48
Speaker 1: the morning. At eleven o'clock in the bright moonlight, Talbot,
1:09:52
Speaker 1: with Johnson and a couple of orderly started out. They
1:09:55
Speaker 1: climbed over the front line, which was at present a
1:09:58
Speaker 1: railway embankment, crawled into omen's land and set to work. Immediately,
1:10:03
Speaker 1: the bish snipers spotted them and bullets began to whistle
1:10:06
Speaker 1: over their heads. Luckily no one was hit, but a
1:10:09
Speaker 1: couple of whiz bangs dropped uncomfortably close. The men dropped
1:10:13
Speaker 1: for cover. Only Johnson stood still, his figure black against
1:10:17
Speaker 1: the white snow gleaming in the moonlight. The shells continued
1:10:21
Speaker 1: to fall about them, as they will go back when
1:10:23
Speaker 1: the work was done. As they reached in, the tanks
1:10:26
Speaker 1: were being let up toward the line, so that later,
1:10:29
Speaker 1: under cover of darkness, they might be taken further forward
1:10:32
Speaker 1: to their starting points. End of chapter five, chapter six
1:10:43
Speaker 1: of Life in the Tank by Richard Haig. This recording
1:10:48
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. The first battle at dawn
1:10:52
Speaker 1: the next morning, the tanks were already lined up, sullen
1:10:55
Speaker 1: and menacing in the cold half light. The men shivered
1:10:58
Speaker 1: in the biting air. One by one the crews entered
1:11:01
Speaker 1: the machines, and one by one the little steel doors
1:11:04
Speaker 1: closed behind them. The engines throbbed, and they moved off sluggishly.
1:11:09
Speaker 1: Darwin and Talbot, with their orderlies, waited impatiently. The moments
1:11:13
Speaker 1: just before an attack were always the hardest. A few
1:11:16
Speaker 1: batteries were keeping up a decilatory fire. They glanced at
1:11:19
Speaker 1: their watches only a minute ago, said Darwin, I bet
1:11:22
Speaker 1: the shows put off or something. Isn't this snow damnably cold,
1:11:26
Speaker 1: though Suddenly a sixty pounder in our rear crashed out.
1:11:30
Speaker 1: Then from all sides a deafening roar burst forth, and
1:11:33
Speaker 1: the barrage began. As we became accustomed to the intensity
1:11:37
Speaker 1: and ear splittingness of the sound, the bark of the
1:11:39
Speaker 1: eighteen pounders could be faintly distinguished above the dull roar
1:11:43
Speaker 1: of the eight inches. The skyline was lit up with
1:11:46
Speaker 1: thousands of flashes, large and small, each one showing for
1:11:50
Speaker 1: a second trenches or trees or houses. And during this
1:11:53
Speaker 1: tornado we knew that the Willies must have started forward
1:11:56
Speaker 1: on their Errand as the barrage lifted and the noise
1:12:00
Speaker 1: died down a little, the first streaks of light began
1:12:03
Speaker 1: to show in the sky. Although we could distinguish nothing.
1:12:06
Speaker 1: No sign of the infantry or of the tanks could
1:12:09
Speaker 1: be seen, but the ominous sound of machine guns and
1:12:12
Speaker 1: heavy rifle fire told us that the Bosh was prepared.
1:12:15
Speaker 1: We could stand this inactivity no longer. We trudged forward
1:12:19
Speaker 1: through the snow, taking the broad bands left by the
1:12:22
Speaker 1: tracks of the buses as our guide, the officers leading
1:12:25
Speaker 1: the way and the orderlies behind in single file. The
1:12:29
Speaker 1: Blighters starting himself, now, said Talbot, as a four to
1:12:32
Speaker 1: two landed one hundred yards away, and pieces of earth
1:12:35
Speaker 1: came showering down on our heads. Then another and another fell,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: each closer than the one before, and instinctively we quickened
1:12:42
Speaker 1: our steps, for it is difficult to walk slowly through
1:12:45
Speaker 1: the shell fire. The embankment loomed before us, and big
1:12:49
Speaker 1: splotches of black and yellow leaped from its surface. The
1:12:52
Speaker 1: deafening crashes gave us a peculiar feeling in the stomach,
1:12:55
Speaker 1: which danger alone can produce. We scrambled up the crumbling,
1:12:59
Speaker 1: slaggy sides, and found when we reached the top that
1:13:02
Speaker 1: the sound of the machine guns had died away, excepting
1:13:05
Speaker 1: on the extreme left in front of b, where the
1:13:08
Speaker 1: ordinary tap of ones and twos had developed into a
1:13:10
Speaker 1: sharp crackle of tens and twenties. By listening carefully, one
1:13:15
Speaker 1: could feel, rather than hear, the more intermittent bursts from
1:13:18
Speaker 1: the rifles. There's one, sir, shouted one of the orderlies.
1:13:22
Speaker 1: Where half right, about five hundred yards ahead. By din
1:13:26
Speaker 1: of straining, we discovered a little animal, or so it looked,
1:13:29
Speaker 1: crawling forward on the far side of the Hindenburg line.
1:13:32
Speaker 1: Already it was doing a left inc line in accordance
1:13:35
Speaker 1: with its instructions, so as to enfilate a communication trench
1:13:38
Speaker 1: which ran back to end. The German observer had spotted
1:13:43
Speaker 1: her here and there on each side of her a
1:13:45
Speaker 1: column of dirt and snow rose into the air. But
1:13:48
Speaker 1: the little animal seemed to bear a charm life. No
1:13:51
Speaker 1: harm came to her, and she went calmly on her
1:13:53
Speaker 1: way for all the world, like a giant tortoise at
1:13:56
Speaker 1: which one vainly throws clouds of dirt. As it grows lighter,
1:14:00
Speaker 1: we can now see others in the distance. One is
1:14:02
Speaker 1: not moving, is it out of action? The only motion
1:14:06
Speaker 1: on the whole landscape is that of bursting shells, and
1:14:09
Speaker 1: the tanks. Over the white snow in front of the
1:14:12
Speaker 1: German wire are dotted little black lumps. Some crawl, some
1:14:16
Speaker 1: move a leg or and arm, and some lie quiet still.
1:14:19
Speaker 1: One who has never seen a modern battle doubtless forms
1:14:22
Speaker 1: a picture of masses of troops moving forward in splendid formation,
1:14:26
Speaker 1: with cheering voices and gleaming bandits. This is quite erronorerous
1:14:30
Speaker 1: to an observer in a post or in a balloon.
1:14:33
Speaker 1: No concerted action is visible at all here and there
1:14:36
Speaker 1: a line or two of men dash forward and disappear
1:14:39
Speaker 1: A single man or a small group of men wrigular
1:14:42
Speaker 1: across the ground. That is all, well, they haven't got
1:14:45
Speaker 1: it in the neck, as I suppose, said Darwin, remarkably
1:14:48
Speaker 1: few lying about. Let's push on all right, Talbot asserted,
1:14:52
Speaker 1: if you like. We crawled over the top of the
1:14:55
Speaker 1: embankment and continued down the side. About two hundred yards
1:14:58
Speaker 1: to the left we saw one of the the tanks
1:15:00
Speaker 1: with her nose in the air. A little group of
1:15:03
Speaker 1: three or four men were digging around her. Frantically. We
1:15:06
Speaker 1: rushed over to them and found that the old Bird's
1:15:08
Speaker 1: bus had failed to get over a large pit which
1:15:11
Speaker 1: lay in the middle of no man's land, and was
1:15:13
Speaker 1: stuck with her tail in the bottom of the ditch.
1:15:16
Speaker 1: Here occurred one of those extraordinary instances of luck which
1:15:19
Speaker 1: one notices everywhere in a modern battle. The tank had
1:15:23
Speaker 1: been there about ten minutes when the German gunners had
1:15:25
Speaker 1: bracketed on her and were dropping five nines, all of
1:15:28
Speaker 1: them within a radius of seventy yards of the tank,
1:15:31
Speaker 1: and yet no one was hurt. Finally, by din of
1:15:34
Speaker 1: strenuous digging, she started up and pulled herself wearily out
1:15:38
Speaker 1: of the pit. Suddenly Darwin shouted, look here, ye fellows,
1:15:42
Speaker 1: what are those bosches doing? Looking up, we saw about
1:15:45
Speaker 1: forty or fifty Germans stumbling over their own wire and
1:15:48
Speaker 1: running towards us as hard as they could go. For
1:15:51
Speaker 1: a moment we thought it was a preliminary step of
1:15:53
Speaker 1: a counter attack, but suddenly we discovered that they carried
1:15:56
Speaker 1: no arms and were attempting to run with their hands
1:15:58
Speaker 1: above their heads. At the same time, something occurred, which
1:16:02
Speaker 1: is always one of the saddest sights in war. One
1:16:05
Speaker 1: hears a great deal about the horrors of war and
1:16:07
Speaker 1: the horrors of seeing men killed on either side of one,
1:16:11
Speaker 1: but at the time there is very little horror to it.
1:16:14
Speaker 1: One simply doesn't have time to pay any attention to
1:16:16
Speaker 1: it all. But the sad part was that the German
1:16:19
Speaker 1: machine gunners, seeing their men surrendering, opened a furious fire
1:16:23
Speaker 1: on them. There they were caught from behind, and many
1:16:25
Speaker 1: of them dropped from the bullets of their own comrades.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: Twenty or thirty of them came straight on, rushed up
1:16:31
Speaker 1: to the pit where the tank had come to grief,
1:16:33
Speaker 1: and tumbled down into this refuge Evidently they knew of
1:16:37
Speaker 1: the British passion for souvenirs, for when our men surrounded them,
1:16:41
Speaker 1: the Germans plucked wildly at their own shoulder straps, as
1:16:43
Speaker 1: if to intreat their captors to take the shoulder straps
1:16:46
Speaker 1: instead of anything else. We gave two or three of
1:16:49
Speaker 1: the wounded Germans some cigarettes and a drink of water.
1:16:53
Speaker 1: They were then told to find their quickest way to
1:16:55
Speaker 1: the rear. Like other German prousioners we had seen, they
1:16:58
Speaker 1: went willingly enough. German discipline obtains even after a man
1:17:02
Speaker 1: has been made a prisoner. He obeys his captors with
1:17:05
Speaker 1: the same facility with which he had previously obeyed his
1:17:07
Speaker 1: own officers left to themselves and started on the right road.
1:17:11
Speaker 1: The prisoners will plod along their NCOs, saluting the English
1:17:15
Speaker 1: officers and inquiring the way to the concentration camp. When
1:17:18
Speaker 1: they find it, they usually appear well pleased. The old
1:17:22
Speaker 1: Verge tank moved on. I suppose everything's going all right,
1:17:26
Speaker 1: said talbot. Suppose we move on and see if we
1:17:28
Speaker 1: can't get some information, yes, or some souvenirs, Darwin replied
1:17:32
Speaker 1: with a laugh. We pushed on slowly. Three tanks which
1:17:35
Speaker 1: had completed their job were coming back and passed us.
1:17:38
Speaker 1: A little later, we met some fellows who were slightly
1:17:40
Speaker 1: wounded and asked them how the battle was going. Every
1:17:44
Speaker 1: story was different. The wounded are rarely able to give
1:17:46
Speaker 1: a correct version of any engagement, and we saw that
1:17:49
Speaker 1: no accurate information was to be gleaned from these men.
1:17:52
Speaker 1: We had been out now for an hour and a
1:17:54
Speaker 1: half and still had no news to send back the headquarters.
1:17:57
Speaker 1: We knew how hard it was for the officers behind
1:17:59
Speaker 1: the lines, who had the whole show, to sit hour
1:18:02
Speaker 1: after hour waiting for news of their troops. The minutes
1:18:05
Speaker 1: are like hours. My god, Darwin, look, Talbot cried, something's
1:18:09
Speaker 1: happened to her. She's on fire. In the distance, we
1:18:11
Speaker 1: saw one of our tanks stuck in the German wire,
1:18:14
Speaker 1: which at that point was about one hundred yards. Thick
1:18:17
Speaker 1: smoke was belching from every porthole. A shell had rested
1:18:20
Speaker 1: a direct hit, exploding the petrol, and the tank was
1:18:23
Speaker 1: on fire. We dashed forward toward her. The German machine
1:18:26
Speaker 1: gun rattled viciously. They had seen us an instant later.
1:18:30
Speaker 1: The bullets were splattering around us, and we dropped flat.
1:18:34
Speaker 1: One man slumped heavily and lay white still by inches.
1:18:37
Speaker 1: We crawled forward, nearer and nearer to the blazing monster.
1:18:40
Speaker 1: Another machine gun snarled at us, and we slid into
1:18:43
Speaker 1: a shell hole for protection. Then, after a moment's breathing space,
1:18:47
Speaker 1: we popped out and tried to rush again. Another man
1:18:50
Speaker 1: stopped a bullet. It was suicide to go farther into
1:18:54
Speaker 1: another shell hole. We fell and thought things over. We
1:18:57
Speaker 1: decided to send a message giving Roughly the news that
1:19:00
Speaker 1: the Hindenburg Line and n had been taken, and Orderly
1:19:03
Speaker 1: was given a message. He crawled out of the shell hole,
1:19:06
Speaker 1: ran a few steps, dropped flat, wriggled across the snow,
1:19:10
Speaker 1: sprang to his feet, ran another few steps, and so
1:19:13
Speaker 1: on until we lost sight of him. A moment or
1:19:15
Speaker 1: two later, we started across the snow in a direction
1:19:18
Speaker 1: parallel with the lines. Behind an embankment, we came across
1:19:22
Speaker 1: a little group of Australians at an impromptu dressing station.
1:19:26
Speaker 1: Some of them were wounded and others were binding up
1:19:29
Speaker 1: their wounds. We watched them for a while and started
1:19:31
Speaker 1: on again. We had gone about fifty yards when a
1:19:34
Speaker 1: shell screeched overhead. We turned and saw it land in
1:19:38
Speaker 1: the middle of the group. We had just left. Another
1:19:40
Speaker 1: shell burst close to us, and huge clods of earth
1:19:43
Speaker 1: struck us in the face and in the stomach, knocking
1:19:46
Speaker 1: us flat and blinding us for the moment. A splinter
1:19:49
Speaker 1: struck Talbot on his tin hat grazing his skin behind us.
1:19:53
Speaker 1: One of the orderly screamed and we rushed back to him.
1:19:56
Speaker 1: He had been hit below the knee and his leg
1:19:58
Speaker 1: was nearly severed. We tied him up and managed to
1:20:01
Speaker 1: get him back to the Australian Aid post. Two of
1:20:03
Speaker 1: the original four stretcher barriers had been blown up a
1:20:06
Speaker 1: few minutes before, but the remaining two were carrying on
1:20:09
Speaker 1: with their work as though nothing had happened here. He
1:20:12
Speaker 1: was bandaged and started on his way for the dressing station.
1:20:15
Speaker 1: Far across the snow, we saw three more tanks plodding
1:20:18
Speaker 1: back toward the rear. Little by little we gained ground
1:20:21
Speaker 1: until we reached a more sheltered area where we could
1:20:24
Speaker 1: make greater speed. We were feverishly anxious to know the
1:20:27
Speaker 1: fate of the crew of the burning tank. Whose tank
1:20:30
Speaker 1: was it was on every tongue we met other wounded
1:20:32
Speaker 1: men being helped back. Those with leg wounds were being
1:20:35
Speaker 1: supported by others less seriously wounded. They could tell us nothing.
1:20:39
Speaker 1: They had been with the infantry and only knew that
1:20:41
Speaker 1: two tanks were right on the other side of the village.
1:20:43
Speaker 1: A moment or two later, Talbot started running toward two men,
1:20:47
Speaker 1: one of whom was supporting the other. The wounded man
1:20:50
Speaker 1: proved to be the sergeant of the tank we had
1:20:52
Speaker 1: seen on fire. We hurried up to him. He was
1:20:55
Speaker 1: heard in the leg so instead of firing questions at him,
1:20:57
Speaker 1: we kept quiet and accompanied him back to the dressing station.
1:21:01
Speaker 1: Later we learned the tragic news that it was Gould's
1:21:04
Speaker 1: tank that had burned up. None of us talked much
1:21:07
Speaker 1: about it. It did not seem real. They had got
1:21:09
Speaker 1: stuck in the German wire. A crumpet hit them and
1:21:12
Speaker 1: fired the petrol tank. That was the end. Two men,
1:21:15
Speaker 1: the sergeant and another, escaped from the tank. The others
1:21:18
Speaker 1: perished with it. We tried to comfort each other by
1:21:21
Speaker 1: repeated assurances that they must have all lost consciousness quickly
1:21:24
Speaker 1: from the fumes of the petrel before they suffered from
1:21:27
Speaker 1: the fire. But it was small consolation. Everyone had liked
1:21:31
Speaker 1: Gould and everyone would miss him. We waited at brigade
1:21:34
Speaker 1: headquarters for the others to return. A tank commander from
1:21:37
Speaker 1: another company was brought in, badly wounded and looking ghastly,
1:21:41
Speaker 1: but joking with everyone as they carried him along on
1:21:44
Speaker 1: a stretcher. His tank had been knocked out and they
1:21:47
Speaker 1: had saved their guns and gone on with the infantry.
1:21:50
Speaker 1: He had been the last to leave the tank, and
1:21:51
Speaker 1: as he had stepped out to the ground, a shell
1:21:54
Speaker 1: exploded directly beneath him, taking off both of his legs
1:21:57
Speaker 1: below the knee. The last of the tanks waddled wearily
1:22:01
Speaker 1: in and the work of checking up began. All were
1:22:04
Speaker 1: accounted for, but two. Their fate still remains a secret.
1:22:08
Speaker 1: Our theory was that they had gone too far ahead
1:22:10
Speaker 1: and had entered the village in back of the German lines,
1:22:13
Speaker 1: that the infantry had not been able to keep up
1:22:15
Speaker 1: with them, and that they had been captured two or
1:22:18
Speaker 1: three days afterwards. And airman told us that he had
1:22:21
Speaker 1: seen on the day of the battle two tanks far
1:22:23
Speaker 1: ahead of the infantry, and that they appeared to be stranded.
1:22:26
Speaker 1: Weeks later, we attacked at the point where the tanks
1:22:29
Speaker 1: had been, and on some German prisoners whom we took,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: we found several photographs of these identical tanks. Then one day,
1:22:36
Speaker 1: when we stopped wondering about them, a sergeant and our
1:22:39
Speaker 1: company received a letter from one of the crew of
1:22:41
Speaker 1: the missing machines, saying that he was a prisoner in Germany.
1:22:45
Speaker 1: But of the officers we have never heard to this day.
1:22:48
Speaker 1: We set around wearily waiting for the motor lorries, which
1:22:51
Speaker 1: were to take some of us back to be years
1:22:54
Speaker 1: seemed to have been crowded into the hours that had elapsed.
1:22:57
Speaker 1: Talbot glanced at his watch. It was still only eight
1:23:00
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. Again, he experienced the feeling of
1:23:03
Speaker 1: incredulity that comes to one who has had so much
1:23:06
Speaker 1: happen in the hours between dawn and early morning, and
1:23:09
Speaker 1: who discovers that the day has but just begun. He
1:23:12
Speaker 1: had thought it must be three o'clock in the afternoon.
1:23:14
Speaker 1: At least the lorry has arrived eventually and took those
1:23:17
Speaker 1: who had no tanks back to b The others brought
1:23:20
Speaker 1: the willies in by the evening end of chapter six
1:23:31
Speaker 1: chapter seven of Life and a Tank by Richard Hay.
1:23:35
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven
1:23:40
Speaker 1: the second battle. Ten days had now elapsed, since that day,
1:23:44
Speaker 1: when we had gone back to b with the officers
1:23:46
Speaker 1: and men who had survived. We had enjoyed every minute
1:23:49
Speaker 1: of our rest, and once more were feeling fit. The
1:23:52
Speaker 1: remainder of the company had been divided up into cruise.
1:23:55
Speaker 1: The Willies themselves had had the best of care and attention,
1:23:58
Speaker 1: most important of all to the childish minds of that
1:24:01
Speaker 1: part of the British Army which we represented. We had
1:24:03
Speaker 1: given another concert which had been an even greater success
1:24:06
Speaker 1: than the first. The Old Bird and Boy we could
1:24:09
Speaker 1: excel themselves. We were convinced that something was wrong with
1:24:12
Speaker 1: the government that would send two such artists to the
1:24:15
Speaker 1: front when they should be at home writing words and
1:24:17
Speaker 1: music that would live forever. Toward the end of the week,
1:24:21
Speaker 1: plans for another attack were arranged. This time it was
1:24:24
Speaker 1: to take place at sea, about five miles north of
1:24:27
Speaker 1: the end. We were told that this was to be
1:24:29
Speaker 1: a big show. At last, part of the Hindenburg Line
1:24:32
Speaker 1: had been taken, and part was still in the hands
1:24:34
Speaker 1: of the enemy. It had been decided therefore, that this
1:24:37
Speaker 1: sector of the line and the village behind it, must
1:24:39
Speaker 1: be captured. Our share in the business consisted of a
1:24:42
Speaker 1: few tanks, to work with the infantry. Two of us
1:24:45
Speaker 1: went up three days before to arrange the plans with
1:24:47
Speaker 1: the divisional commander. We wandered up into the Hindenburg line
1:24:51
Speaker 1: as close as we could get to the bosch to
1:24:53
Speaker 1: see what the ground was like and to decide, if possible,
1:24:56
Speaker 1: on the routes for the tanks and the line. Were
1:24:58
Speaker 1: innumerable souvenirs. We found the furniture that the Germans had
1:25:01
Speaker 1: taken out of the villages on their retirement and had
1:25:04
Speaker 1: used to make their line more comfortable. We found, too,
1:25:08
Speaker 1: an extraordinary piece of engineering. A tunnel about ten miles
1:25:11
Speaker 1: long ran underneath the whole of the Hennenburgh line. It
1:25:14
Speaker 1: was about thirty or forty feet down and had been dug.
1:25:17
Speaker 1: We heard by Russian prisoners. The tunnel was about six
1:25:20
Speaker 1: feet wide and about five feet high. It had been
1:25:23
Speaker 1: roughly balked in with timber, and at every twenty yards
1:25:26
Speaker 1: a shaft let out of the tunnel up into the trench.
1:25:28
Speaker 1: Before we found a large mirror, which he felt could
1:25:31
Speaker 1: not be wasted under the circumstances. He could not resist
1:25:34
Speaker 1: his charm, so he started lugging it back to six
1:25:37
Speaker 1: miles to camp. It was very heavy, and his charm
1:25:39
Speaker 1: had decreased greatly by the time he reached camp and
1:25:42
Speaker 1: found that no one could make any use of it.
1:25:45
Speaker 1: The day of the attack was still undecided, and in
1:25:48
Speaker 1: order to be quite ready when it should come off,
1:25:50
Speaker 1: we left b with the tank one evening and took
1:25:52
Speaker 1: them up to Saint Elle, a little place about three
1:25:55
Speaker 1: thousand yards away from the Heindenburgh line. Here we staged
1:25:58
Speaker 1: them behind the railway and bank underneath the bridge that
1:26:01
Speaker 1: had been partially blown up. This was the same embankment,
1:26:04
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, behind which four or five
1:26:06
Speaker 1: miles away the Australian dressing station had been established in
1:26:10
Speaker 1: the last battle. Here we spent two or three days
1:26:14
Speaker 1: turning up the machines at many of our leisure moments,
1:26:16
Speaker 1: and watching a howitzer battery which was just behind us.
1:26:20
Speaker 1: This was fascinating. If you stand by the gun when
1:26:22
Speaker 1: it is fired, you can see the shell leave the
1:26:24
Speaker 1: muzzle and watch the black mass shoot at seven or
1:26:27
Speaker 1: eight thousand yards until it becomes a small speck and
1:26:30
Speaker 1: finally vanishes just before it hits the ground. We also
1:26:35
Speaker 1: made an interesting collection of German and English shell cases.
1:26:38
Speaker 1: These cases are made of brass and the forty fives,
1:26:41
Speaker 1: especially in the opinion of some people, make very nice
1:26:44
Speaker 1: rose bowls when they are polished, with wire arranged inside
1:26:48
Speaker 1: to hold the blossoms. Weird music could be heard issuing
1:26:51
Speaker 1: from our dugouts at times when we gave an impromptu
1:26:54
Speaker 1: concert by putting several of these shell cases on a
1:26:57
Speaker 1: log of wood and playing the labortines on them with
1:27:00
Speaker 1: a bit of stone. All this merrymaking came to an end, though.
1:27:05
Speaker 1: One day we received word that the attack was to
1:27:08
Speaker 1: come off the next morning. Then began the preparations in earnest,
1:27:12
Speaker 1: and the day went with a rush. At this part
1:27:14
Speaker 1: of the Hindenburg Line, it was very easy to lose
1:27:16
Speaker 1: one's way, especially at night. The tanks were scheduled to
1:27:20
Speaker 1: start moving up at ten o'clock. Talbot and the Old Bird,
1:27:23
Speaker 1: with several men, set out at about eight and arranged
1:27:27
Speaker 1: from marchs to guide the machines. We had just reached
1:27:30
Speaker 1: a part of the Hindenburg Line which was now in
1:27:32
Speaker 1: our possession, and were near an ammunition duve when shells
1:27:36
Speaker 1: began to fall around us. They were not near enough
1:27:39
Speaker 1: to do us any harm, and we continued our work.
1:27:41
Speaker 1: Then one dropped into the ammunition dump and exploded. In
1:27:44
Speaker 1: an instant, the whole dump was alight. It was like
1:27:47
Speaker 1: some terrible and giant display of pyrotechnics. Gas shells, beret
1:27:51
Speaker 1: lights and stink bombs filled the area with their nauseou shoulders.
1:27:55
Speaker 1: Shells of all sizes blew up and fell in steely splinters.
1:27:59
Speaker 1: The noise was cursing our luck. We waited until it
1:28:02
Speaker 1: died down into a red, smoldering mass, and then edged
1:28:05
Speaker 1: up cautiously to continue our work. By this time, Bulwich's
1:28:09
Speaker 1: tank came up and he emerged with a broad smile
1:28:12
Speaker 1: on his face. Having a good time, he asked genially.
1:28:18
Speaker 1: There was a pros and silence accepting for his inane laughter.
1:28:22
Speaker 1: He made a few more irritating remarks, which he seemed
1:28:25
Speaker 1: to think were very funny, and then he disappeared inside
1:28:28
Speaker 1: his tank and prepared to follow us. We had gone
1:28:30
Speaker 1: ahead a couple of hundred yards when we heard bombs exploding,
1:28:33
Speaker 1: and looking back we saw the tank standing still, with
1:28:36
Speaker 1: fireworks going off under one of our tracks. Presently, the
1:28:40
Speaker 1: noise ceased, and after waiting a moment, we strolled back.
1:28:43
Speaker 1: As we reached the tank, Bulwark and his crew came
1:28:45
Speaker 1: tumbling out making the air blue with their language. They
1:28:49
Speaker 1: had run over a box of bombs, the only thing
1:28:52
Speaker 1: that had survived the fire and the ammunition dump, and
1:28:54
Speaker 1: one of the tracks was damaged. To repair it in
1:28:57
Speaker 1: several hours hard work in the cold, unpleasant proximity to
1:29:01
Speaker 1: the still smoldering dump over Talbot's face spread abroad smile.
1:29:06
Speaker 1: Having a good time, he asked pleasantly of Bulwick. Infuriated
1:29:10
Speaker 1: growls were his only answer. We moved on with his
1:29:13
Speaker 1: men while Bulwick and his crew settled down to work.
1:29:17
Speaker 1: The night was fortunately dark. They went slowly forward and
1:29:20
Speaker 1: brought the route almost up to within calling distance of
1:29:23
Speaker 1: the Germans. The beat lights shattering the darkness over no
1:29:27
Speaker 1: man's land did not disclose them to the enemy. Suddenly,
1:29:31
Speaker 1: the boxed machine gun mechanically turned its attentions toward the
1:29:34
Speaker 1: place where they were working. With a tightening of every muscle.
1:29:37
Speaker 1: Talbot heard the slow whisper of the gun as it
1:29:40
Speaker 1: turned to sweep the intervening space between the lines. The
1:29:43
Speaker 1: whisper rose to assuring hiss. The men dropped to the ground,
1:29:47
Speaker 1: flattening themselves into the earth, but Talbot stood still. Now,
1:29:51
Speaker 1: if ever, was the time when an example would count.
1:29:54
Speaker 1: If they all dropped to the ground every time a
1:29:56
Speaker 1: machine gun rattled, the job would never be done. So
1:29:59
Speaker 1: hands in his pockets, but with an awful wind up,
1:30:02
Speaker 1: he waited while the soft patter of the bullets came near,
1:30:05
Speaker 1: and the patter quickened into a rain as it reached him.
1:30:08
Speaker 1: The rain became a fierce torrent, stinging the top of
1:30:11
Speaker 1: the parapet behind them as the bullets tore viciously a
1:30:14
Speaker 1: few inches above his head. Then as it passed it
1:30:17
Speaker 1: dropped into a patter once more, and finally dropped away
1:30:20
Speaker 1: in a whisper. Talbot suddenly realized that his throat was aching,
1:30:24
Speaker 1: but that he was untouched by the storm. The men
1:30:27
Speaker 1: slowly got to their feet and continued their work in silence,
1:30:31
Speaker 1: although the machine gun continued to spatter bullets near them
1:30:34
Speaker 1: all through the hours they were working. Not once again
1:30:37
Speaker 1: did the men drop. When they heard the whisper begin.
1:30:40
Speaker 1: The job was finally done, and they filed wearily back.
1:30:44
Speaker 1: The attack was time to come up at dawn an
1:30:47
Speaker 1: hour before. While it was still brock his pitch, the
1:30:49
Speaker 1: tanks moved forward again with their final starting point. Mcnutt's
1:30:53
Speaker 1: machine was the first to go Cheerio McNutt, we said,
1:30:57
Speaker 1: as he clambered in good luck and followed some through
1:31:01
Speaker 1: the top, some through the side. The doors and portholes
1:31:04
Speaker 1: were closed, and in a moment the exhaust began to
1:31:06
Speaker 1: puff merrily. The tank crawled forward and soon disappeared into
1:31:11
Speaker 1: the blackness. She had about fifteen hundred yards to go
1:31:15
Speaker 1: parallel with the Hindenburg line and several trenches to cross
1:31:19
Speaker 1: before coming up with the enemy. We had planned that
1:31:22
Speaker 1: the tanks would take about three quarters of an hour
1:31:24
Speaker 1: to reach their starting point, and that soon after they
1:31:27
Speaker 1: arrived there the show would begin. Since it was still
1:31:31
Speaker 1: dark and the attack had not commenced, McNutt and his
1:31:34
Speaker 1: first driver opened the windows in front of them. They
1:31:37
Speaker 1: looked out into impenetrable gloom. It was necessary to turn
1:31:41
Speaker 1: their headlights on, and with this help they crawled along
1:31:44
Speaker 1: a little more securely. A signal from the driver and
1:31:47
Speaker 1: they got into top Giar. She bumped along over shell
1:31:50
Speaker 1: holes and mine craters at the exhilarating speed of about
1:31:53
Speaker 1: four miles an hour, and then arrived at the first
1:31:56
Speaker 1: trench to be crossed. It was about ten feet wide,
1:32:00
Speaker 1: with high banks on each side. One up signals the driver.
1:32:04
Speaker 1: The gear's men get into first gear, and the tank
1:32:07
Speaker 1: tilts back as it goes up one side of the trench.
1:32:10
Speaker 1: Suddenly she starts tipping over, and the driver takes out
1:32:13
Speaker 1: his clutch and puts on his break hard. Make Nut
1:32:16
Speaker 1: yells out, hold tight, and the tank slides gently down
1:32:19
Speaker 1: with her nose in the bottom of the trench. The
1:32:21
Speaker 1: driver lets in his clutch again. The tank digs her
1:32:24
Speaker 1: nose into the other side and pulls herself up slowly
1:32:28
Speaker 1: while her tail dips down into the bottom of the trench.
1:32:31
Speaker 1: Then comes the great strain, and she pulls herself bodily
1:32:34
Speaker 1: out of the trench until she balances on the far side.
1:32:38
Speaker 1: It was now no longer safe to run with lights.
1:32:41
Speaker 1: They were snapped off once more. The darkness closed around
1:32:44
Speaker 1: them blacker than ever. They can no longer find their route,
1:32:48
Speaker 1: and make Nut jumped out, walking ahead with the tank
1:32:50
Speaker 1: lumbering along behind. Twice he lost his way and they
1:32:53
Speaker 1: were obliged to wait until he found it again. Into
1:32:57
Speaker 1: his intense relief, the moon shone out with a feeble light.
1:33:00
Speaker 1: It was just enough to illuminate faintly the ground before them,
1:33:04
Speaker 1: and McNutt re entered the tank and started on Their route.
1:33:08
Speaker 1: Ran close to the sides of an old quarry and
1:33:10
Speaker 1: the edge along cautiously. McNutt, with his eyes glued to
1:33:14
Speaker 1: the front, decided that they must have passed the end
1:33:16
Speaker 1: of the quarry. That would mean that they were not
1:33:19
Speaker 1: far from the spot where they were to wait for
1:33:20
Speaker 1: the signal to go into action. The moon had again
1:33:23
Speaker 1: disappeared behind the clouds, but he did not consider it
1:33:26
Speaker 1: worthwhile to get out again. The journey would be over
1:33:29
Speaker 1: in a few minutes. Suddenly, his heart took a great dive,
1:33:33
Speaker 1: and he seemed to stop breathing. He felt the tank
1:33:36
Speaker 1: balance ever so slightly. Staring with aching eyes through the portholes,
1:33:40
Speaker 1: he saw that they were on the edge of the
1:33:42
Speaker 1: old quarry, with a forty foot drop down its steep sides.
1:33:45
Speaker 1: Before them, the black depths seemed bottomless. The tank was
1:33:49
Speaker 1: slipping over. When she shot down, they would all be
1:33:51
Speaker 1: killed from concussion alone. His heart was pounding so that
1:33:55
Speaker 1: he could hardly speak, but the driver too had seen
1:33:58
Speaker 1: the danger. For God's sake, take out your clutch and
1:34:01
Speaker 1: put your brake on. Mcnut yelled, his voice almost drowned
1:34:04
Speaker 1: by the rattle, and roared inside the tank. The man
1:34:07
Speaker 1: kept his head. As the tail of the tank started
1:34:09
Speaker 1: tipping up. He managed to somehow with the brakes hold
1:34:12
Speaker 1: her on the edge for a second or two. She
1:34:14
Speaker 1: swayed there. She seemed to be unable to decide whether
1:34:17
Speaker 1: to kill them or not. The slightest crumlining of the
1:34:20
Speaker 1: earth or faintest outside movement against the tank would precipitate
1:34:24
Speaker 1: them over the edge. The brakes would not hold for
1:34:26
Speaker 1: them long. Then the driver acted slowly. He put his
1:34:29
Speaker 1: gears in reverse, keeping the brake on hard until the
1:34:32
Speaker 1: engine had taken up the stream. Slowly she moved back
1:34:35
Speaker 1: until her tail bumped on the ground and she settled down.
1:34:39
Speaker 1: Neither McNutt nor his driver spoke. They pushed back their
1:34:42
Speaker 1: tin hats and wiped their foreheads. McNutt glanced back at
1:34:46
Speaker 1: the men in the rear of the tank. They, of course,
1:34:48
Speaker 1: had been unable to see out and had no idea
1:34:51
Speaker 1: of what they had escaped. Now that the danger had passed,
1:34:54
Speaker 1: he felt an unreasonable annoyance that none of them would
1:34:57
Speaker 1: ever know what he and the driver had gone through
1:34:59
Speaker 1: in those few moments onwards. Then the feeling passed, he
1:35:02
Speaker 1: signaled new to a left the gearsman locked his left
1:35:05
Speaker 1: track and the tank swung over, passing safely by the
1:35:08
Speaker 1: peril of spot. They settled down now to a snail's pace,
1:35:13
Speaker 1: shutting off their engine. As the Germans could not be
1:35:15
Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards
1:35:17
Speaker 1: away running a pool speed, the engine would have been
1:35:20
Speaker 1: heard by them. In a few moments they arrived at
1:35:23
Speaker 1: their appointed station. Mcnut glanced at his watch. They had
1:35:27
Speaker 1: only a few moments to wait. The engine was shut
1:35:29
Speaker 1: off and they stopped. The head inside the tank was oppressive.
1:35:34
Speaker 1: McNutt and James opened the top and crawled out. The
1:35:36
Speaker 1: men followed. They looked around. The first streaks of light
1:35:40
Speaker 1: were beginning to show in the sky. A heavy silence
1:35:43
Speaker 1: hung over everything, the silence that always proceeds a bombardment.
1:35:48
Speaker 1: Presumably only the attacking forces feel this. Even the deciliatory
1:35:52
Speaker 1: firing seems to have faded away. All the little ordinary
1:35:56
Speaker 1: noises have ceased. It is a sickening quiet, so loud
1:36:00
Speaker 1: in itself that it makes one's heart be quicker. It
1:36:03
Speaker 1: is because one is listening so intensely for the guns
1:36:06
Speaker 1: to break out, that all sounds have lost their significance.
1:36:09
Speaker 1: One seems to have become All ears to have no
1:36:12
Speaker 1: sense of sight or touch, or taste or smell. All
1:36:15
Speaker 1: seems to have become merged in the sense of hearing.
1:36:18
Speaker 1: The very air itself seems tense with listening. Only the
1:36:21
Speaker 1: occasional rattle of a machine gun breaks the stillness. Even
1:36:25
Speaker 1: this passes unnoticed. Slowly, the minute hand crept round to
1:36:29
Speaker 1: the half hour, and the men slipped back into their
1:36:31
Speaker 1: steel home. Doors were bolted in, portholes shut save with
1:36:35
Speaker 1: the tiny slits in front of the officer and driver
1:36:37
Speaker 1: through which they peered. The engine was ready to start.
1:36:40
Speaker 1: The petrol was on and flooding. They waited quietly. Their
1:36:44
Speaker 1: heavy breathing was the only sound. The minute hand reached
1:36:47
Speaker 1: the half hour with the crash and swish of thousands
1:36:50
Speaker 1: of shells. The guns smashed the stillness instantly. The flash
1:36:54
Speaker 1: of their explosion lit up the opposite trenches for appraction
1:36:57
Speaker 1: of a second. The thought came to mc nutt, how
1:37:00
Speaker 1: wonderful it was that man could produce a sound to
1:37:02
Speaker 1: which nature had no equal, either in violence or intensity.
1:37:06
Speaker 1: But the time was for action and not for reflection.
1:37:09
Speaker 1: Start her up, yelled I mc nutt. But the engine
1:37:11
Speaker 1: would not fire. What the devil's the matter, cried James.
1:37:15
Speaker 1: A bit of tinkering with the carburetor and the engine
1:37:18
Speaker 1: purred softly. Its noise was drowned, and the pandemonium raging
1:37:22
Speaker 1: around them. James let in the clutch and the monster
1:37:25
Speaker 1: moved forward on her errand of destruction. Although it was
1:37:29
Speaker 1: not light enough to distinguish forms, the flashes of the
1:37:32
Speaker 1: shell fire and the bursts from the shrapnel lit up
1:37:35
Speaker 1: that part of the Hindenburg line that lay on the
1:37:37
Speaker 1: other side of the barrier one hundred and fifty yards,
1:37:40
Speaker 1: and the tank was almost on top of the barricade.
1:37:43
Speaker 1: Bombs were exploitding on both sides. Mc nutt slammed down
1:37:46
Speaker 1: the shutters of the portholes in front of him and
1:37:48
Speaker 1: his driver. Bullets, he said, Shortly one came through, I think,
1:37:52
Speaker 1: Sir James replied, with the porthole shut, there was no
1:37:55
Speaker 1: chance for bullish to enter out through the little pin
1:37:57
Speaker 1: points directly above the slits and the shutter. In order
1:38:01
Speaker 1: to see through these, it is necessary to place one's
1:38:03
Speaker 1: eye directly against the cold metal. They are safe where
1:38:06
Speaker 1: if a bullet does hit them, it cannot come through,
1:38:09
Speaker 1: although it may stop up the hole. Suddenly a dull
1:38:12
Speaker 1: explosion was heard on the roof of the tank. Their
1:38:15
Speaker 1: bombing iss Sir cried one of the gunners make nuts,
1:38:18
Speaker 1: signal to him, and he opened fire from his sponsor.
1:38:20
Speaker 1: They plunged along amid a halo of bullets while bombs
1:38:23
Speaker 1: exploded all around them. McNutt and James, with that instinctive
1:38:27
Speaker 1: sense of duration which comes to men who control these machines,
1:38:31
Speaker 1: felt that they were hovering on the edge of the
1:38:33
Speaker 1: German trench. Then a sudden flash from the explosion of
1:38:36
Speaker 1: a huge shell lit up the ground around them, and
1:38:39
Speaker 1: they saw four or five gray clad figures about ten
1:38:42
Speaker 1: yards away standing on the parapet, hysterically hurling bombs at
1:38:46
Speaker 1: the machine. They might as well have been throwing pebbles scornfully.
1:38:50
Speaker 1: The tank slid over into the wide trench and landed
1:38:52
Speaker 1: with a crash in the bottom. For a moment, she
1:38:55
Speaker 1: lay there without moving. The Germans thought she was stuck.
1:38:58
Speaker 1: They came running along, thinking to grapple with her, but
1:39:01
Speaker 1: they never reached her. For at once the guns on
1:39:04
Speaker 1: both sides opened fire and the Germans disappeared. The huge
1:39:09
Speaker 1: machine dragged herself up the steep ten foot side of
1:39:11
Speaker 1: the trench. As she neared the top, it seemed as
1:39:14
Speaker 1: if the engine would not take the final pull. James
1:39:17
Speaker 1: took out his clutch, put his brake on hard and
1:39:20
Speaker 1: raised the engine. Then letting the clutch in with a jerk,
1:39:23
Speaker 1: the tank pulled herself right on to the point of
1:39:25
Speaker 1: balance and tipped slowly over would have been the parapet
1:39:28
Speaker 1: of a German position. Now she was in the wire
1:39:32
Speaker 1: which lay in front of the trench. McNutt signaled back,
1:39:35
Speaker 1: swing round to the left, parallel to the lay of
1:39:38
Speaker 1: the line. A moment's paused, and she moved forward, relentlessly,
1:39:41
Speaker 1: crushing everything in her path and sending out a stream
1:39:44
Speaker 1: of bullets from every turret to any of the enemy
1:39:47
Speaker 1: who dared to show themselves above the top of the trench.
1:39:51
Speaker 1: At the same time, our own troops, who had waited
1:39:54
Speaker 1: behind the barricade to bomb their way down from traverse
1:39:57
Speaker 1: to traverse, rushed over the heap of sand bags, tank wire,
1:40:00
Speaker 1: wood and dead men which barred their way. The moral
1:40:03
Speaker 1: effect of the tank's success and the terror she inspired
1:40:07
Speaker 1: cheered our infantry on to greater efforts. The tank crew
1:40:10
Speaker 1: were at the time unaware of the infantry's action, as
1:40:13
Speaker 1: none of our own men could be seen. The only
1:40:15
Speaker 1: indication of the fact was the bursting of the bomb,
1:40:18
Speaker 1: which gradually moved from fire bay to fire bay. The
1:40:21
Speaker 1: corporal touched McNutt on the arm. I don't believe our
1:40:24
Speaker 1: people are keeping up with us, sir, he said. They
1:40:26
Speaker 1: seemed to have stopped about thirty yards back. All right,
1:40:29
Speaker 1: mc Nutt answered, will turn around. McNutt and James opened
1:40:33
Speaker 1: their portholes to obtain a clearer view. Five yards along
1:40:36
Speaker 1: to the left, a group of Germans were holding up
1:40:39
Speaker 1: the advancing British. They had evidently prepared a barricade in
1:40:42
Speaker 1: case of a possible bombing attack on our part, and
1:40:45
Speaker 1: this obstacle, together with a fuci lot of bombs which
1:40:47
Speaker 1: met them, prevented our troops from pushing on. McNutt seized
1:40:51
Speaker 1: his gat and pushed it through the mounting, but found
1:40:53
Speaker 1: he could not swing round far enough to get a
1:40:55
Speaker 1: name on the enemy. But James was in a better position.
1:40:59
Speaker 1: He picked the great figure was off one by one
1:41:01
Speaker 1: until the bombing ceased, and our man jumped over the
1:41:03
Speaker 1: barricade and came down among the dead and wounded Germans.
1:41:07
Speaker 1: Then a sudden and unexplainable sense of disaster caused mc
1:41:10
Speaker 1: nutt to look round. One of his gunners lay quite
1:41:13
Speaker 1: still on the floor of the tank, his back against
1:41:16
Speaker 1: the engine and a stream of blood trickling down his face.
1:41:18
Speaker 1: The corporal, who stood next to him pointed to the
1:41:21
Speaker 1: sight in the turret and then to his forehead, and
1:41:24
Speaker 1: McNutt realized that a bullet must have slipped through the
1:41:26
Speaker 1: small space entering the man's head as he looked along
1:41:29
Speaker 1: the barrel of his gun. There he lay along one
1:41:32
Speaker 1: side of the tank, between the engine and the sponsor.
1:41:35
Speaker 1: The corporal tried to get in position to carry on
1:41:37
Speaker 1: firing with his own gun. With the dead body impeded
1:41:40
Speaker 1: his movements, there was only one thing to do. The
1:41:44
Speaker 1: corporal looked questioningly at McNutt and pointed to the body.
1:41:47
Speaker 1: The officer nodded quickly, and the left gearsman in the
1:41:50
Speaker 1: corporal dragged the body and propped it up against the door.
1:41:53
Speaker 1: Immediately the door flew open, The back of the corpse
1:41:56
Speaker 1: fell down, and half the body lay hanging out with
1:41:59
Speaker 1: its legs till caught on the floor. With feverish haste,
1:42:02
Speaker 1: they lifted the legs and threw them out but the
1:42:04
Speaker 1: weight of the body balanced them back again through the
1:42:07
Speaker 1: still open door. The men were desperate. With a tremendous heave,
1:42:10
Speaker 1: they turned the dead man upside down, shoved the body out,
1:42:13
Speaker 1: and slammed the door shut. They were just in time.
1:42:16
Speaker 1: A bomb exploded directly beneath the sponson where the dead
1:42:19
Speaker 1: body had fallen. To every man in the tank, there
1:42:22
Speaker 1: came a feeling of swift gratitude that the bombs had
1:42:24
Speaker 1: caught the dead men and knocked themselves. They plowed across
1:42:28
Speaker 1: another trench without dropping into the bottom, for it was
1:42:31
Speaker 1: only six feet wide. Daylight had come by now, and
1:42:34
Speaker 1: the enemy was beginning to find that his brave efforts
1:42:36
Speaker 1: were of no avail against these monsters of steel. All
1:42:41
Speaker 1: this time the German guns had not been silent, but
1:42:44
Speaker 1: Nutch tank crunched across the ground amid a furious storm
1:42:47
Speaker 1: applying earth and splinters. The strain was beginning to be felt.
1:42:51
Speaker 1: Although one is protected from machine gun fire in a tank,
1:42:53
Speaker 1: the sense of confinement is at times terrible. One does
1:42:57
Speaker 1: not know what is happening outside his little steel prison.
1:43:00
Speaker 1: One often cannot see where the machine is going. The
1:43:03
Speaker 1: noise inside is deafening. The heat terrific. Bombs shatter on
1:43:07
Speaker 1: the roof and on all sides. Bullets spatter savagely against
1:43:10
Speaker 1: the walls. There is an awful lack of knowledge, a
1:43:13
Speaker 1: feeling of blind helplessness at being cooped up. One is
1:43:16
Speaker 1: entirely at the mercy of the big shells. If a
1:43:19
Speaker 1: shell hit the tank near the petrol tank, the men
1:43:21
Speaker 1: may perish by fire, as did Gould, without a chance
1:43:25
Speaker 1: of escape. Going down with your ship seems pleasant compared
1:43:28
Speaker 1: to burning up with your tank. In fighting in the open,
1:43:31
Speaker 1: one has at least air and space. Mac Nutt, however,
1:43:35
Speaker 1: was lucky. They could now see the sunken robe before them,
1:43:38
Speaker 1: which was their objective. Five knives were dropping around them now.
1:43:42
Speaker 1: It was only a matter of moments, it seemed, when
1:43:44
Speaker 1: they would be stuck. Do you think we shall make it?
1:43:47
Speaker 1: Mc Nutt ask James. We may get there, but shall
1:43:49
Speaker 1: we get back? That's the question. Sir mac Nutt did
1:43:52
Speaker 1: not answer. They had both had over two years experience
1:43:55
Speaker 1: of the accuracy of the German artillery, and they did
1:43:58
Speaker 1: not believe in miracles. But they had their orders. They
1:44:00
Speaker 1: must simply do their duty and trust to luck. They
1:44:04
Speaker 1: reached the sunken road the tank was swung around. Their
1:44:07
Speaker 1: orders were to reach their objective and remain there until
1:44:09
Speaker 1: the bombers arrived. Mac Nut peered out. No British were
1:44:13
Speaker 1: in sight, and he snapped his porthole shut. Grimly, they
1:44:16
Speaker 1: settled down to wait. The moments passed, each one seemed
1:44:21
Speaker 1: as if it would be their last. Would the infantry
1:44:24
Speaker 1: never come? Would there be any sense in just sitting
1:44:26
Speaker 1: there until the German shell annihilated them? If the infantry
1:44:29
Speaker 1: never arrived, had they been pushed back by a German rush?
1:44:32
Speaker 1: Should he take it upon himself to turn back? Macnut's
1:44:36
Speaker 1: brain whirled. Then, after hours it seemed of waiting around
1:44:40
Speaker 1: the corner of a traverse, he saw one of the
1:44:42
Speaker 1: British ten hats. Nothing in the world could have been
1:44:45
Speaker 1: a happier sight. A great wave of reliefs swept over him.
1:44:49
Speaker 1: Three or four more appeared. Realizing that they too had
1:44:52
Speaker 1: reached their objective, They stopped and began to throw up
1:44:55
Speaker 1: a rough form of barricade. More men poured in. The
1:44:58
Speaker 1: position was consolidated, and there was nothing more for the
1:45:01
Speaker 1: tank to do. They swung round and started back. Two
1:45:04
Speaker 1: shells dropped about twenty yards in front of them for
1:45:07
Speaker 1: a moment. McNutt wondered whether it would be well to
1:45:10
Speaker 1: change their direction. No, we'll keep right on and chance it,
1:45:13
Speaker 1: he said aloud. The next moment, a tremendous crash seemed
1:45:16
Speaker 1: to lift the tank off the ground. Black smoke and
1:45:18
Speaker 1: flying particles filled the tank. Mcnut and James looked around,
1:45:22
Speaker 1: expecting to see the top of the machine blown off,
1:45:24
Speaker 1: but nothing had happened. Inside. No one was injured, although
1:45:28
Speaker 1: shells continued to fall around them and a German machine
1:45:31
Speaker 1: gun raised at them. They got back safely. Brigade headquarters,
1:45:36
Speaker 1: where McNutt reported, was full of expectancy. Messages were pouring
1:45:39
Speaker 1: in over the wires the minute. The telephones were dead
1:45:42
Speaker 1: beat but cool and collected any news of the other busses,
1:45:45
Speaker 1: McNutt asked eagerly. The buzzers shook their head wearily. He
1:45:48
Speaker 1: rushed up to a couple of men who were being
1:45:50
Speaker 1: carried to a dressing station. Do you, fellows know how
1:45:54
Speaker 1: the tanks made out? He asked. One of them had
1:45:57
Speaker 1: seen two of the machines on the other side of
1:45:59
Speaker 1: the German lion said, in answer to the questions which
1:46:02
Speaker 1: were fired at him, he could only say that the
1:46:04
Speaker 1: tanks had pushed on beyond the German front line. Then
1:46:07
Speaker 1: on the top of the hill against the skyline, they
1:46:09
Speaker 1: saw a little group of three or four men. James
1:46:12
Speaker 1: recognized them. Well, they're Sergeant Browning and mister Borwick, Sir,
1:46:16
Speaker 1: he said, what's happened to their tank? I wondered. He
1:46:19
Speaker 1: and McNutt hurried over to meet them. Borwick smiled coolly. Hello,
1:46:23
Speaker 1: he said, in his casual manner, what's happened to your bus?
1:46:26
Speaker 1: What did you do? Was fired at him. We got
1:46:29
Speaker 1: stuck in the German wire and the infantry got ahead
1:46:31
Speaker 1: of us, he said. We pushed on and fell into
1:46:33
Speaker 1: a nest of three machine guns. They couldn't hurt us,
1:46:36
Speaker 1: of course, and the boshes finally ran away. We knocked
1:46:39
Speaker 1: out about ten of them, and just as we were
1:46:41
Speaker 1: going on, and we're already moving, we suddenly started twisting
1:46:44
Speaker 1: around in circles. What do you think had happened? A
1:46:47
Speaker 1: trench mortar had got us pooled in one of our tracks,
1:46:49
Speaker 1: and the beastly thing broke. So we all tumbled out
1:46:52
Speaker 1: and left her there. Didn't you go with the infantry,
1:46:55
Speaker 1: asked me Nutt. No, they'd reached their objected by that time.
1:46:58
Speaker 1: Bulwick replied, so we he saved the tank guns and
1:47:01
Speaker 1: I pinched the clock. Then we strolled back, and here
1:47:04
Speaker 1: we are, he concluded. Talbot joined the group as he finished.
1:47:07
Speaker 1: But where's the rest of your crew, he asked. Bulwick
1:47:10
Speaker 1: said quietly, Jameson and Corporal Fist got knocked out coming back.
1:47:14
Speaker 1: He lit a cigarette and puffed at it. There was
1:47:16
Speaker 1: silence for a moment, then Talbot said, bad luck. Have
1:47:19
Speaker 1: you got their pay books? No, I forgot them, Bulwick answered,
1:47:23
Speaker 1: but his sergeant handed over the little brown books, which
1:47:26
Speaker 1: were the only tangible remains of the two men who
1:47:29
Speaker 1: had gone into action that morning. The paybooks contained two
1:47:32
Speaker 1: or three pages on which were jotted down their pay
1:47:35
Speaker 1: with the officer's signature. They had been used as pocketbooks
1:47:38
Speaker 1: and held a few odd letters which the men had
1:47:40
Speaker 1: received a few days before. Talbot had often been given
1:47:44
Speaker 1: the pay books of men and his company who were killed,
1:47:46
Speaker 1: but he never failed to be effected when he discovered
1:47:48
Speaker 1: the letters in the little trifles, which had meant so
1:47:51
Speaker 1: much to the men who had carried them, and which
1:47:53
Speaker 1: would mean so much to those whom they had left behind.
1:47:57
Speaker 1: In silence, they went back to mcnut's tank and sat
1:47:59
Speaker 1: down waiting for news. Scraps of information were beginning to
1:48:03
Speaker 1: trickle in. Have gained our objective in ched wood, have
1:48:06
Speaker 1: not been counterattacked, Cannot push on owing to heavy machine
1:48:10
Speaker 1: gun fire from sea, holding out with twenty men in
1:48:13
Speaker 1: trench running north from derelict wood. Can I have reinforcements?
1:48:18
Speaker 1: These were the messages pouring in from different points on
1:48:21
Speaker 1: the lines of attack. Sometimes the messages came in twos
1:48:25
Speaker 1: and threes. Sometimes there were minutes when only a wild
1:48:28
Speaker 1: buzzing could be heard, and the men at the telephones
1:48:30
Speaker 1: tried to make the buzzing intelligible. The situation cleared up finally, However,
1:48:35
Speaker 1: our troops had apparently gained their objectives along the entire
1:48:38
Speaker 1: line to the right. On the left, the next brigade
1:48:40
Speaker 1: had been hung up by devastating machine gun fire. As
1:48:44
Speaker 1: McNutt and Talbot waited around for news in fresh orders,
1:48:47
Speaker 1: one of their men hurried down and saluted. He brought
1:48:50
Speaker 1: the news that the other three tanks had returned having
1:48:52
Speaker 1: reached their objectives. Two had but little opposition, and the
1:48:55
Speaker 1: infantry had found no difficulty in gaining their points of attack.
1:48:59
Speaker 1: The third tank, however, had had three men wounded at
1:49:02
Speaker 1: a pill box. These pill boxes were little concrete ports
1:49:06
Speaker 1: which the Germans had planted along his line. The walls
1:49:09
Speaker 1: are of feral concrete, two or three feet thick. As
1:49:12
Speaker 1: the tank reached the pill box, two Germans slipped out
1:49:15
Speaker 1: of the rear door. Three of the tank crew clambered
1:49:17
Speaker 1: down and got inside the pill box, and a moment
1:49:20
Speaker 1: the firing from inside ceased, and presently the door flew open.
1:49:23
Speaker 1: Two British tank men, dirty and grimy, escorting ten Germans,
1:49:27
Speaker 1: filed out. The Germans had their hands above their heads,
1:49:30
Speaker 1: and when ordered to the rear, they went with the
1:49:32
Speaker 1: greatest alacrity. One of the three Englishmen was badly wounded,
1:49:35
Speaker 1: the other two were only slightly injured, but they wandered
1:49:38
Speaker 1: down to the dressing station with the hope that blighting
1:49:41
Speaker 1: would soon welcome them. Although Talbot had his orders to
1:49:45
Speaker 1: hold the tanks in readiness in case they were needed,
1:49:48
Speaker 1: no necessity arose, and after a few hours waiting, the
1:49:51
Speaker 1: major sent word to him to start the tanks back
1:49:53
Speaker 1: to the embankment, there to be kept for the next occasion.
1:49:56
Speaker 1: Better still, the men were to be taken back to
1:49:59
Speaker 1: b and the motor, just as they had been after
1:50:01
Speaker 1: the first battle. Water compared to quiet blankets. These were
1:50:06
Speaker 1: the luxuries that lay before them. As he sat crowded
1:50:09
Speaker 1: into the swaying motor lauriy that lurched back along the
1:50:11
Speaker 1: shell torn road to b Talbot slipped his hand into
1:50:15
Speaker 1: his pocket. He touched the check book, a package of
1:50:17
Speaker 1: cigarettes and a razor. Then he smiled. They were the
1:50:20
Speaker 1: final preparations he had made that morning before he went
1:50:23
Speaker 1: into action. After all, he had not needed them, but
1:50:26
Speaker 1: one never could tell one might be taken prisoner. One
1:50:29
Speaker 1: needed no such medical preparations against the possibility of death,
1:50:32
Speaker 1: but a prisoner that was different. The checkbook had been
1:50:36
Speaker 1: for his use in a possible great prison camp in
1:50:38
Speaker 1: the land of his enemies. Checks would some time or
1:50:41
Speaker 1: other reached his English bank and his people would know
1:50:43
Speaker 1: that he was at least alive. The cigarettes were to
1:50:46
Speaker 1: keep up his courage in the face of whatever disaster
1:50:48
Speaker 1: might befall him, and the razor most important of all,
1:50:52
Speaker 1: The razor was to keep bright and untarnished the traditions
1:50:55
Speaker 1: and prestige of the British Army. End of chapter seven
1:51:00
Speaker 1: of Life in the Tank. Chapter eight of Life in
1:51:08
Speaker 1: a tank by Richard Haig. This LibriVox recording is in
1:51:13
Speaker 1: the public domain. Rest and Discipline. We stayed in that
1:51:18
Speaker 1: region of the front for a few more weeks, preparing
1:51:21
Speaker 1: for any of the tasks that might be demanded of us.
1:51:23
Speaker 1: One day the battalion received its orders to pack up,
1:51:26
Speaker 1: to load the tanks that were left over, and to
1:51:29
Speaker 1: be ready for its return to the district in which
1:51:31
Speaker 1: we had spent the winter. We trained on a Saturday
1:51:34
Speaker 1: evening at a and arrived at Saint p at about
1:51:37
Speaker 1: ten o'clock on Sunday night. From there at twelve mile
1:51:40
Speaker 1: March to lay before us to our old billets and
1:51:42
Speaker 1: b as well may be imagined, the men, though tired,
1:51:46
Speaker 1: were in high spirits. We simply ate up the distance,
1:51:49
Speaker 1: and the troops disguised their fatigue by singing songs. There
1:51:53
Speaker 1: were two which appeared to be favored on this occasion,
1:51:57
Speaker 1: one to the tune of the Church's One Foundation, and
1:52:00
Speaker 1: as follows, we are fred Karno's army. The ragtime a
1:52:04
Speaker 1: s c we cannot work, we do not fight, So
1:52:07
Speaker 1: what the ruddy use are we? And when we get
1:52:09
Speaker 1: to Berlin, the Kaiser he will say, Hacock meant what
1:52:14
Speaker 1: a ruddy lot is the ragtime a s c. The
1:52:18
Speaker 1: other was a refrain to the tune of a Salvation
1:52:21
Speaker 1: Army hymn when the roll was called up yonder. When
1:52:24
Speaker 1: you wash us in the water that you washed your
1:52:26
Speaker 1: dirty daughter, Oh, then will be much whiter, will be
1:52:29
Speaker 1: whiter than the whitewash on the walls. Eventually the companies
1:52:33
Speaker 1: arrived in the village, yet all hours of the morning
1:52:36
Speaker 1: no one was up. We saw that the men received
1:52:38
Speaker 1: their meals, which had been prepared by the cooks who
1:52:40
Speaker 1: had gone ahead in moldor lorries. They did not spend
1:52:43
Speaker 1: much time over the food, for in less than half
1:52:46
Speaker 1: an hour cave billets the same Hospice de Saint Bertha
1:52:50
Speaker 1: were perfectly quiet. We then wandered away with our servants,
1:52:54
Speaker 1: to be met at each of our houses by hastily
1:52:56
Speaker 1: clad landladies with sleeping their eyes and smoking lamps or
1:53:00
Speaker 1: guttering candles in their hands. The next morning, the company
1:53:05
Speaker 1: paraded at half past nine, and the day was spent
1:53:08
Speaker 1: in reforming sections, in issuing new kits to the men,
1:53:11
Speaker 1: and in working the rosters for various courses. On Tuesday,
1:53:15
Speaker 1: just as breakfast was starting and orderly brought a couple
1:53:18
Speaker 1: of memorandums from Battalion Orderly Room for mc nutt and Borwick.
1:53:22
Speaker 1: No one watched them read the chits, but Talbot, glancing
1:53:25
Speaker 1: up from his plate, saw a look on Borlwick's face.
1:53:28
Speaker 1: It was a look of the purest joy. What is it?
1:53:31
Speaker 1: He said? Leave? By God, said Borwick. And mc nutt's
1:53:35
Speaker 1: got it too. When are you going to day? Shouted
1:53:37
Speaker 1: the old bird. Yes, there's a car to take us
1:53:40
Speaker 1: to the station in a quarter of an hour. They
1:53:42
Speaker 1: both left their unfinished breakfast and tore off to their billets.
1:53:46
Speaker 1: There it was but a matter of moments to throw
1:53:48
Speaker 1: a few things into their packs. No one ever takes
1:53:50
Speaker 1: any luggage when going on leave. They tore back into
1:53:53
Speaker 1: the mists to leave instructions for their servants, and we
1:53:56
Speaker 1: strolled out end mass to see the lucky fellows off.
1:53:59
Speaker 1: The box body drew away from where we were standing.
1:54:02
Speaker 1: We watched it grow smaller and smaller down the long
1:54:04
Speaker 1: white road, and turned back with regrets and pleasure in
1:54:07
Speaker 1: our hearts, with regrets that we ourselves were not the
1:54:10
Speaker 1: lucky ones, and knowing that for some of us lee
1:54:13
Speaker 1: would never come with pleasure because one is always glad
1:54:17
Speaker 1: that a few of the deserving reap a small share
1:54:19
Speaker 1: of their reward. Then, strolling over to the parade ground,
1:54:23
Speaker 1: we heard the five minutes sounding. Some dashed off to
1:54:26
Speaker 1: get their sad browns. Others called for their servants to
1:54:29
Speaker 1: wipe a few flecks of dust from their boots and fetees.
1:54:32
Speaker 1: When the fall in began, the entire company was standing
1:54:35
Speaker 1: at ease on the parade ground. As the last note
1:54:37
Speaker 1: of the call sounded, the whole parade sprang to attention,
1:54:41
Speaker 1: and the Major, who had been standing on the edge
1:54:42
Speaker 1: of the field, walked forward to inspect. Every morning was
1:54:47
Speaker 1: spent in this manner, except for those who had special
1:54:50
Speaker 1: courses to follow. We devoted all our time and attention
1:54:53
Speaker 1: to forming fours in as perfect a manner as possible,
1:54:56
Speaker 1: to salute him with the greatest accuracy and fierceness, and
1:55:00
Speaker 1: to unwavering repetition of every movement in detail, until machine
1:55:04
Speaker 1: like precision was attained. All that we were doing, then
1:55:08
Speaker 1: was the very foundation and essence of good discipline. Discipline
1:55:12
Speaker 1: is the state to which a man is trained in
1:55:14
Speaker 1: order that, under all circumstances he shall carry out, without
1:55:18
Speaker 1: secondary reasoning, any order that he may be given by
1:55:21
Speaker 1: superior There is nothing of a servile nature in this
1:55:24
Speaker 1: form of obedience. Each man realizes that it is for
1:55:27
Speaker 1: the good of the whole. By placing his implicit confidence
1:55:30
Speaker 1: in the commands of one of a higher rank than
1:55:32
Speaker 1: his own, he gives an earnest of his ability to
1:55:35
Speaker 1: himself command at some future time. It is but another
1:55:38
Speaker 1: proof of the old adage that the man who obeys
1:55:41
Speaker 1: least is the least fitted to command. When this war started,
1:55:46
Speaker 1: certain large formations, with the sheer lust for fighting in
1:55:49
Speaker 1: their blood, did not, while being formed, realize the absolute
1:55:53
Speaker 1: necessity of unending drill and inspection. Their first cry was
1:55:57
Speaker 1: give us a rifle, a byonet and a bomb, show
1:55:59
Speaker 1: us how to use them, and we will do the rest.
1:56:02
Speaker 1: Acting upon this idea, they flung themselves into battle, disregarding
1:56:06
Speaker 1: the iron rules of a preliminary training. At first, their
1:56:09
Speaker 1: very impetus and courage carried them over incredible obstacles. But
1:56:13
Speaker 1: after a time, and as their best were killed off,
1:56:16
Speaker 1: the original blaze died down, and the steady flame of
1:56:20
Speaker 1: ingrained discipline was not there to take the place of
1:56:22
Speaker 1: burning enthusiasm. The terrible waste and useless sacrifice that ensued
1:56:28
Speaker 1: showed only too plainly that even the greatest individual bravery
1:56:31
Speaker 1: is not enough. In the modern warfare, there are many
1:56:35
Speaker 1: trials and experiences unimagined before which wear down the actual
1:56:39
Speaker 1: will power of the men who undergo them. When the
1:56:42
Speaker 1: troops are forced to sit in a trench under the
1:56:45
Speaker 1: most terrific shell fire, the nerve racking noise, the sight
1:56:48
Speaker 1: of their comrades and their defenses being blown to atoms,
1:56:52
Speaker 1: and the constant fear that they themselves will be the
1:56:54
Speaker 1: next to go all deprived the ordinary mind of vital initiative.
1:56:58
Speaker 1: Having lost the actual mental powers that a human being possesses,
1:57:02
Speaker 1: they are reduced to the level of machines. The officers
1:57:05
Speaker 1: and non commissioned officers on whom the responsibility of leadership
1:57:09
Speaker 1: rests have that spur to maintain their equilibrium, But the
1:57:12
Speaker 1: private soldiers, who have themselves only to think of, are
1:57:16
Speaker 1: the most open to this devastating influence. If these machines
1:57:20
Speaker 1: are to be controlled, as they must be, by an
1:57:22
Speaker 1: exterior intelligence, they must obey automatically, And if in the
1:57:27
Speaker 1: past automatic obedience has not been implanted, there is nothing
1:57:30
Speaker 1: to take its place. The only means by which to
1:57:34
Speaker 1: obtain inherent response to a given order is to train
1:57:37
Speaker 1: a man in minute details, by constant, inflexible insistence on perfection,
1:57:42
Speaker 1: that it becomes part of his being to obey without thinking.
1:57:46
Speaker 1: It must not be presumed that in obtaining this almost
1:57:49
Speaker 1: inhuman reaction, all independent qualities are obliterated. For though a
1:57:53
Speaker 1: man's mind is adjusted to carrying out without questioning any
1:57:57
Speaker 1: task that is demanded of him, yet in the ex
1:58:00
Speaker 1: acution of his duties, he has allowed the full scope
1:58:03
Speaker 1: of his intervention and initiative. Thus, by this dull and
1:58:06
Speaker 1: uninny routine, we laid the foundation of that inevitable success
1:58:10
Speaker 1: toward which we were slowly working. When the company dismissed,
1:58:14
Speaker 1: the Major, Talbot and the Old Bird walked over to
1:58:17
Speaker 1: lunch together. Well it's a great war, isn't it, said
1:58:20
Speaker 1: the Major, turning to the other two. It's very nice
1:58:23
Speaker 1: to have got through a couple of shows, Sir, replied Talbot.
1:58:26
Speaker 1: What do you think about it, old Bird? Well, of
1:58:29
Speaker 1: course war is all very well for those who like it.
1:58:31
Speaker 1: But give me the base every time, answered the old Bird,
1:58:34
Speaker 1: true to his reputation, then turning to the Major with
1:58:37
Speaker 1: his most ingradiating smile, he said, by the way, sir,
1:58:40
Speaker 1: what about a few days in Boulogne? End of chapter eight,
1:58:51
Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Life in a Tank by Richard Haig.
1:58:55
Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. A Philosophy of War,
1:59:01
Speaker 1: It has often been observed that if this war is
1:59:03
Speaker 1: to end war for all time, and if all the
1:59:05
Speaker 1: sacrifices in misery and suffering will help to prevent any
1:59:09
Speaker 1: recurrence of them, then it is well worth while. In
1:59:12
Speaker 1: these days of immediate demands and quick results, this question
1:59:15
Speaker 1: is too vague and too far reaching to bring instant consolation.
1:59:19
Speaker 1: Apart from that, too, it cannot decide whether any war,
1:59:22
Speaker 1: however great, can ever abolish the natural and primitive fighting
1:59:25
Speaker 1: instinct in men. The source from which we must draw
1:59:28
Speaker 1: the justification for our optimism lies much nearer to hand.
1:59:32
Speaker 1: We must regard the effect that warring life has already
1:59:35
Speaker 1: produced upon each individual member of the nations who are
1:59:38
Speaker 1: and who are not engaged in it. At the very
1:59:41
Speaker 1: heart of it is the effect on the man who
1:59:43
Speaker 1: is actually fighting. Take the case of him who before
1:59:47
Speaker 1: the war was either working in a factory, who was
1:59:49
Speaker 1: a clerk in a business house, or who was nothing
1:59:52
Speaker 1: at all beyond the various loafer and bar lounger. To
1:59:55
Speaker 1: begin with, he was perhaps purely selfish. The foundation of
1:59:58
Speaker 1: his normal life was so protection, whether worthless or worthy,
2:00:02
Speaker 1: whether hating or respecting his superiors, the private gain and
2:00:06
Speaker 1: comfort for himself and his was the object of his existence.
2:00:10
Speaker 1: He becomes a soldier, and that act alone is a conversion.
2:00:14
Speaker 1: His wife and children are cared forward as true. But
2:00:17
Speaker 1: he himself, or a shilling a day, sells to his country,
2:00:20
Speaker 1: his life, his health, his pleasures, and his hopes for
2:00:24
Speaker 1: the future. To make good measure he throws in cheerfulness, devotion, philosophy, humor,
2:00:30
Speaker 1: and an unfailing kindness. One man, for instance, sells up
2:00:34
Speaker 1: three grocery businesses in the heart of Lancashire, an ambition
2:00:38
Speaker 1: which it has taken him ten years to accomplish. Without
2:00:41
Speaker 1: a trace of bitterness. He divorces himself from the routine
2:00:44
Speaker 1: of a lifetime and goes out to French to begin
2:00:46
Speaker 1: life again at the very bottom of a new latter.
2:00:51
Speaker 1: He who for many years had men under him, is
2:00:53
Speaker 1: now under all and receives unquestioningly orders which in a
2:00:57
Speaker 1: different spere he had been accustomed to give. Apart from
2:01:00
Speaker 1: a mere letter of obedience and discipline, he gains the
2:01:03
Speaker 1: spirit of devotion and self sacrifice, which turns the bare
2:01:06
Speaker 1: military instrument into a divine virtue. He may, for instance,
2:01:10
Speaker 1: take up the duties of an officer's servant. Immediately he
2:01:14
Speaker 1: throws himself wholeheartedly into a new form of selfless generosity,
2:01:18
Speaker 1: which leads him to a thousand ways of care and
2:01:20
Speaker 1: forethought that even the tenderest woman could hardly conceive. The
2:01:25
Speaker 1: man who receives this unwavering devotion can only accept it
2:01:29
Speaker 1: with the knowledge that no one can deserve it, and
2:01:31
Speaker 1: that it is greater gain to him who gives than
2:01:33
Speaker 1: to him who takes. What life of peace is there
2:01:37
Speaker 1: that produces this god like fiber and the plainest of men?
2:01:40
Speaker 1: Why indeed it is produced in the life of war.
2:01:43
Speaker 1: It is because in war sordidness and petty worries are eliminated,
2:01:47
Speaker 1: because the one great and ever present fear, the fear
2:01:50
Speaker 1: of death, reduces all other considerations to their proper values.
2:01:55
Speaker 1: The actual fear of death is always present, but this
2:01:57
Speaker 1: fear itself cannot be sortied when men can meet it
2:02:00
Speaker 1: of their own free will and with the most total
2:02:02
Speaker 1: absence of cringing or cowardice. In commercial rivalry, a man
2:02:07
Speaker 1: will sacrifice the friend of years to gain a given
2:02:10
Speaker 1: sum which will ensure him increased material comforts. In war,
2:02:14
Speaker 1: a man will deliberately sacrifice the life for which he
2:02:17
Speaker 1: wanted those comforts, to say, perhaps a couple of men
2:02:20
Speaker 1: who have no claim on him whatsoever. He who before
2:02:24
Speaker 1: feared any household calamity, now throws himself upon a live bomb, which,
2:02:28
Speaker 1: even though he might escape himself, will without his actions,
2:02:32
Speaker 1: kill other men who are near it. This deed loses
2:02:35
Speaker 1: none of its value because of the general belief among
2:02:38
Speaker 1: soldiers that life is cheap. Other men's lives are cheap,
2:02:42
Speaker 1: one's own life is always very dear. One of the
2:02:45
Speaker 1: most precious results has been the reservation of the quality
2:02:48
Speaker 1: of admiration. The man who before the war said why
2:02:51
Speaker 1: is he my master, is now only too glad to
2:02:54
Speaker 1: accept a leader who is a leader. Indeed, he has
2:02:57
Speaker 1: learned that his leader cannot do without him, So he
2:03:00
Speaker 1: and I do without his leader. And although each is
2:03:02
Speaker 1: of equal importance in the scheme of affairs, their positions
2:03:05
Speaker 1: in the scheme are different. He has learned that there
2:03:08
Speaker 1: is a higher equality than the equality of class. It
2:03:11
Speaker 1: is the equality of spirit. The same feeling is reflected
2:03:16
Speaker 1: more especially among the leaders of men, in the complete
2:03:19
Speaker 1: disappearance of snobbishness. Though such artificial imposition can survive in
2:03:23
Speaker 1: a life where inherent value automatically finds its level, where
2:03:28
Speaker 1: a disguise which in peacetime pass to superiority, now disintegrates
2:03:32
Speaker 1: when in contact with this life of essentials. For war
2:03:35
Speaker 1: is above all a reduction to essentials. It is the
2:03:39
Speaker 1: touchstone which proves the qualities of our youth. Training. All
2:03:42
Speaker 1: those pleasures that form the gamut of a young man's
2:03:45
Speaker 1: life either fall away completely or find their proper place.
2:03:49
Speaker 1: Sport gains the open air life have taught him high
2:03:53
Speaker 1: cheerfulness through failure or success, which makes endurance possible. But
2:03:57
Speaker 1: the complicated artificial pleasures of ordinary times have receded into
2:04:02
Speaker 1: a dim, unspoken background. The wholesomeness of the existence that
2:04:08
Speaker 1: he now leads has taught him to delight in the
2:04:10
Speaker 1: most simple and natural of things. This throwing aside of
2:04:13
Speaker 1: the perversions and prepperies of an over civilization has forced
2:04:17
Speaker 1: him to regard them with a disgust that can never
2:04:19
Speaker 1: allow him to be tempted again by their inducements. Of
2:04:22
Speaker 1: delight and dissipation. The natural, healthy desires which man is
2:04:27
Speaker 1: sometimes inclined to indulge in are no longer veiled under
2:04:30
Speaker 1: a mask of hypocrisy. They are treated in a perfectly
2:04:33
Speaker 1: outspoken fashion as the necessary accomplishments to a hard, open
2:04:37
Speaker 1: air life where a man's vitality is at its best.
2:04:41
Speaker 1: In consequence of this, and as a result of the
2:04:44
Speaker 1: deepening of man's character, which war inevitably produces, the sense
2:04:48
Speaker 1: of adventure and mystery which accompanied the fulfillment of these
2:04:51
Speaker 1: desires has disappeared, and with it, to a great extent,
2:04:55
Speaker 1: the desires themselves have assumed the far less importance. In peace,
2:05:00
Speaker 1: and especially in war, the young man's creed is casualness,
2:05:04
Speaker 1: not the casualness of carelessness, but that which comes from
2:05:07
Speaker 1: the knowledge that up to each given point he has
2:05:10
Speaker 1: done his best. It is this fundamental peace of mind
2:05:13
Speaker 1: which comes to a soldier that forms the beauty of
2:05:16
Speaker 1: his life. The order received must be obeyed in its
2:05:19
Speaker 1: exact degree, neither more nor less. In the responsibility, though great,
2:05:23
Speaker 1: is clearly defined. Each man must use his individual intelligence
2:05:27
Speaker 1: within the scope of the part assigned to him. The
2:05:30
Speaker 1: responsibility differences in kind, but not in degree, and the
2:05:34
Speaker 1: last link of the chain is as important as the first.
2:05:37
Speaker 1: There can be no shirking, no shifting, and knowing this,
2:05:40
Speaker 1: each task is finished, rounded out, and put away. One
2:05:44
Speaker 1: might think that this may thought mechanical, but it is
2:05:47
Speaker 1: mechanical only in so far as each man's intelligence is
2:05:50
Speaker 1: concentrated on his own particular duty, and each part working
2:05:54
Speaker 1: in perfect order, contributes to the unison through which the
2:05:57
Speaker 1: whole machine develops its powers. A military life induces in
2:06:01
Speaker 1: men a clearer and more accurate habit of thought, and
2:06:05
Speaker 1: teaches each one to do his work well, and above all,
2:06:08
Speaker 1: to do his own work. Only from this very simplicity
2:06:12
Speaker 1: of life, which brings out a calmness of mind, and
2:06:14
Speaker 1: that equable temperament that minter worries can no longer shake,
2:06:18
Speaker 1: springs the mental leisure, which gives time for other and
2:06:21
Speaker 1: unaccustomed ideas. Men who wittingly time and again have faced
2:06:26
Speaker 1: but escaped death, will inevitably begin to think what death
2:06:29
Speaker 1: may mean. As the first lessons of obedience teach each
2:06:33
Speaker 1: man that he needs a leader to pass through a
2:06:35
Speaker 1: certain crisis, so the crisis of death, where man must
2:06:39
Speaker 1: pass alone, demands are still higher. Leader with the admission
2:06:42
Speaker 1: that no man is self sufficient, that sin of pride,
2:06:46
Speaker 1: which is the strongest barrier between a man and his God,
2:06:49
Speaker 1: falls away. He is forced, if only in self defense,
2:06:52
Speaker 1: to recognize that faith in some all sufficient power is
2:06:56
Speaker 1: the only thing that will carry him through. If he
2:06:59
Speaker 1: could cut away the thousand sins of thought, a man
2:07:01
Speaker 1: would automatically find himself at faith. It is the central
2:07:05
Speaker 1: but often hidden point of our intelligence, and although there
2:07:08
Speaker 1: are a hundred roads that lead to it, they may
2:07:11
Speaker 1: be completely blocked. The clean flame of the disciplined life
2:07:15
Speaker 1: burns away the rubbish that chokes these roads, and faith
2:07:18
Speaker 1: becomes a near and more constant thing. The sadness of
2:07:21
Speaker 1: war lies in the loss of actual personalities. But it
2:07:25
Speaker 1: is only by means of these losses that this surrender
2:07:28
Speaker 1: can be attained. It must not be thought that faith
2:07:31
Speaker 1: comes over night as a free gift. It is a
2:07:34
Speaker 1: long and slow process of many difficult steps. There may
2:07:38
Speaker 1: be first the actual literal crumbling unknown in peacetime, of
2:07:42
Speaker 1: one's solid surroundings, to be repeated, perhaps again and again,
2:07:46
Speaker 1: until the old habit of reliance upon them is uprooted.
2:07:49
Speaker 1: Then comes the realization that this life at the front
2:07:52
Speaker 1: has but two possible endings. The first is to be
2:07:56
Speaker 1: so disabled that a man's fighting days are over. The
2:07:59
Speaker 1: other is death, instant death rather than a slow death
2:08:02
Speaker 1: from wounds. Every man hopes for a wound which will
2:08:05
Speaker 1: send him home to England. That, however, is only a respite,
2:08:09
Speaker 1: as his return to France follows upon his convalescence. The
2:08:13
Speaker 1: other most important step is the loss of one's friends.
2:08:16
Speaker 1: It is not the fact of actually seeing them killed
2:08:19
Speaker 1: or in the chaos and tumbles of a battle. The
2:08:21
Speaker 1: mind hardly restures such impressions. One's only feeling is the
2:08:25
Speaker 1: purely primitive one of relief that it is another and
2:08:28
Speaker 1: not one's self. It is only afterwards, when the excitement
2:08:32
Speaker 1: is over and a man realizes that again there is
2:08:34
Speaker 1: a space of life for him, but not for his friends,
2:08:37
Speaker 1: that the loneliness and the losses are felt. He then
2:08:41
Speaker 1: says to himself, why am I spared when many better
2:08:44
Speaker 1: men have gone? At first, resentments fallows up all other emotions.
2:08:48
Speaker 1: In time, when this bitterness begins to pass, the belief
2:08:51
Speaker 1: that somehow this loss is of some avail carries him
2:08:55
Speaker 1: a little further on the road to faith. This all
2:08:57
Speaker 1: comes to the man who, before the war believe that
2:09:00
Speaker 1: the world was made for his pleasure, and who treated
2:09:03
Speaker 1: life from that standpoint. All that he wanted he took
2:09:06
Speaker 1: without asking. Now all that he has he gives without
2:09:10
Speaker 1: being asked. Woman, too, gives more than herself. She gives
2:09:14
Speaker 1: her man, her peace of mind, and all that makes
2:09:16
Speaker 1: her life worth living. The man, after all, may have
2:09:20
Speaker 1: little hope, but while he is alive, he has the
2:09:22
Speaker 1: daily pleasures of health, vitality, excitement, and a thousand interests.
2:09:27
Speaker 1: A woman has but a choice of sorrows, the sorrow
2:09:30
Speaker 1: of unbearable suspense, or the acceptance of the end. Yet
2:09:35
Speaker 1: it needed this war to show again to women what
2:09:38
Speaker 1: they could best do in life, to love their men,
2:09:41
Speaker 1: bear their children, care for the sick and suffering, and
2:09:44
Speaker 1: learn to endure. It has taught them also to accept
2:09:47
Speaker 1: from man what he is able or willing to give,
2:09:50
Speaker 1: and to admit a higher claim than their own. They
2:09:53
Speaker 1: have been forced to put aside the demands and exactions
2:09:56
Speaker 1: which they felt before were their right, and to accept
2:09:58
Speaker 1: loneliness and lass with out murmur or question. A woman
2:10:02
Speaker 1: who loses her son loses the supreme reason of her existence.
2:10:06
Speaker 1: And yet the day after the news has come, she
2:10:08
Speaker 1: goes back to her work for the sons of other women.
2:10:12
Speaker 1: If she has more sons to give, she gives them,
2:10:14
Speaker 1: and again faces the eternal suspense that she has lived
2:10:17
Speaker 1: through before. The younger woman, who in times of peace
2:10:21
Speaker 1: would have looked forward to an advantageous and comfortable marriage,
2:10:25
Speaker 1: will now marry men whom they may never see again
2:10:28
Speaker 1: after the ten days honeymoon is over, and will unhelpishly
2:10:32
Speaker 1: face the very real possibility of widowhood and lonely motherhood.
2:10:36
Speaker 1: They have had to learn the old lesson that work
2:10:38
Speaker 1: for others is the only cure for sorrow, and that
2:10:41
Speaker 1: they have learned too, that it is the only cure
2:10:44
Speaker 1: for all those petty worries and boredoms which assail them
2:10:47
Speaker 1: in times of peace. If they have learned this, then
2:10:50
Speaker 1: again one may say the war's worth while. What effect
2:10:55
Speaker 1: has the war had upon these countries who, in the
2:10:57
Speaker 1: beginning were not engaged in it? The United States, for instance,
2:11:02
Speaker 1: has for three years been an onlooker. The people of
2:11:05
Speaker 1: that country have had every opportunity to view in their
2:11:07
Speaker 1: proper perspectives the feelings and changes brought about among the
2:11:12
Speaker 1: men and women of the combatant countries at first, the
2:11:15
Speaker 1: enormous casualties, the sufferings, and the sorrow led them to
2:11:19
Speaker 1: believe that nothing was worth the price they would have
2:11:21
Speaker 1: to pay were they to enter into the lists. For
2:11:25
Speaker 1: in the beginning, before that wonderful philosophy of spirit and
2:11:28
Speaker 1: cheerfulness of outlook arose, and before the far reaching effects
2:11:32
Speaker 1: of the sacrifice of loved ones could be perceived, there
2:11:35
Speaker 1: seemed to be little reason or right for such a
2:11:37
Speaker 1: train of desolation. They were perfectly justified too, in thinking this,
2:11:42
Speaker 1: when insufficient time had elapsed to enable them to judge
2:11:45
Speaker 1: of the immense, sweeping beneficial effects that this struggle has
2:11:48
Speaker 1: produced in the moral fiber and stamina of the nations engaged.
2:11:54
Speaker 1: It must be remembered that the horrors of the imagination
2:11:57
Speaker 1: are far worse than the realities. The men who fight
2:12:00
Speaker 1: and the women who tend their wounds suffermentally, far less
2:12:03
Speaker 1: than those who paint the pictures in their minds from
2:12:06
Speaker 1: data which so very often are grossly exaggerated. One must
2:12:10
Speaker 1: realize that the hardships of war are merely transient. Men
2:12:14
Speaker 1: suffer untold discomforts, and yet when these sufferings are over,
2:12:17
Speaker 1: and mind and body are at ease for a while
2:12:20
Speaker 1: they are completely forgotten. The only mark they leave is
2:12:23
Speaker 1: the disinclination to undergo them again. But on those who
2:12:26
Speaker 1: do not realize them. In their actuality they cause a
2:12:29
Speaker 1: far more terrifying effect. Now others as well have discovered
2:12:33
Speaker 1: that war's advantages outweigh so much its losses. They who
2:12:37
Speaker 1: with their own eyes have seen the wonderful fortitude with
2:12:40
Speaker 1: which men stand pain and the amazing submission with which
2:12:43
Speaker 1: women bear sorrow, return full of zeal and enthusiasm to
2:12:47
Speaker 1: carry the torch of this uplifting flame to their own countrymen.
2:12:51
Speaker 1: Others will realize too, that although one may lose one's best,
2:12:54
Speaker 1: yet one's worst is made better. The women will find
2:12:57
Speaker 1: that the characters of their men will become soft. The clean,
2:13:01
Speaker 1: cutting sensils of a life of war must make the
2:13:03
Speaker 1: mind of man direct. It may be brutal in its simplicity,
2:13:07
Speaker 1: but it is clear and frank. Yet to counteract this
2:13:09
Speaker 1: continual sight of suffering, bravely born in deep love and
2:13:13
Speaker 1: humility that the devotion of others unconsciously produces, bring about
2:13:17
Speaker 1: this charity of feeling, this desire to forgive, in this
2:13:20
Speaker 1: moderation and criticism which is so marked in those who
2:13:24
Speaker 1: have passed through the strenuous, searing realities of war. Since
2:13:28
Speaker 1: the thirty pieces of silver, No mint coin in the
2:13:30
Speaker 1: world has brought so much as has the King's shilling
2:13:33
Speaker 1: of to day. End of Chapter nine, End of Life
2:13:38
Speaker 1: in a Tank by Richard C. Haig