So goes the tale of the Tanks on the first day of the battle of Flanders. It will be seen from what I have written that they gave good help to the troops. The pilots and crews behaved with splendid gallantry, and not only took great risks, but endured to the last extremity of fatigue in that narrow, hot space where they work their engines and their guns. V THE SONG OF THE COCKCHAFERS AUGUST 8 One of the most bitter blows to Germany, if she has heard the news, must be the destruction of the famous regiment of "Maikaefer," or Cockchafers, by our Welsh troops. The Kaiser called them his brave Coburgers. In Germany the very children sang in the streets about them. And proud of their own exploits, they had their own soldier poets who wrote songs about the regiment, to which they marched through Belgium and France and Galicia. I saw one of these songs yesterday, picked up on the battlefield near Pilkem. It was written by one Paul Zimmermann of theirs, and was printed in a leaflet sold at ten pfennigs (a penny). It tells how the Cockchafers come out in the spring and how the children sing when they come. They are ready for battle then, wherever it may be. The call comes for them wherever there is the hardest fighting, so the Cockchafers swarmed through Belgium, and taught the French a lesson, and pressed after the wicked English, who--so the lying legend goes--used dumdum bullets, and swept back the Russians through Galicia. Old Hindenburg calls for them every time when there are brave deeds to be done. I have copied out two verses for those who read German: _Der Mai der bringt uns Sonnenschein, Er bringt uns Bluhtenpracht;_ _Der Mai der bringt uns Kaeferlein Viel tausend über Nacht; Und von der Kinderlippen klingts: "Maikaefer, fliege, flieg" Und durch den Frühlingesjubel dringts: "Dein Vater ist im Krieg."_ _Uns Garde Fusiliere nennt Maikaefer jeder Mund, Weil unser stolzes Regiment Im Mai stets fertig stand._