Days to Remember: The British Empire in the Great WarBuchan, John
History
Days to Remember: The British Empire in the Great War
Buchan, John
World War, 1914-1918
The Tanks played a brilliant and dramatic part in the day’s success.
One Tank captured a village single-handed, and its wary commander
solemnly demanded a receipt for the village before he handed it over to
the Australians. But the chief performance of the day was that of the
"whippet" Tank "Musical Box," commanded by Lieutenant C. B. Arnold, and
carrying as crew Gunner Ribbans and Driver Carney. This Tank started off
at 4.20 a.m. in company with the others, and when she had advanced the
better part of 2 miles discovered herself to be the leading machine, all
the others having been ditched. She came under direct shell-fire from a
German field battery, and turned off to the left, ran diagonally across
the front of the battery at a distance of 600 yards, and fired at it
with both her guns. The battery replied with eight rounds, fortunately
all misses, and the Tank now managed to get to the battery’s rear under
cover of a belt of trees. The gunners attempted to get away, but
"Musical Box" accounted for them all.
If a Tank can be said to go mad, this Tank now performed that feat. She
started off due east straight for Germany, shooting down Germans
whenever she saw them. The Australian infantry were following her, and
for some time she was also in touch with two British cavalry patrols.
Seeing a party of the enemy in a field of corn, she charged down upon
them, killing three or four. She found a patrol of our cavalry
dismounted and in trouble with some Germans on a railway bridge, so she
made for the bridge and dispersed the Germans. She moved still farther
east, and approached a small valley marked on Lieutenant Arnold’s map as
containing German hutments. As she entered the valley the Germans were
seen packing their kits and beginning to move, and "Musical Box" opened
fire. There was a general flight, but this did not prevent her guns
from accounting for a considerable number. She now turned a little to
the left across open country, firing at retreating German infantry at
ranges of from 200 to 600 yards, and being heavily fired on by rifles
and machine-guns in reply. Unfortunately she was carrying petrol tins
on her roof, and these were perforated by the hail of bullets, so that
the petrol ran all over the cab. The great heat from her engines and
guns, which had been in action for nine or ten hours, made it necessary
at this point for the crew to breathe through their box-respirators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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