PREPARING FOR CAMBRAI. A TRAIN OF TANKS WITH FASCINES IN POSITION 176 THE BAPAUME-CAMBRAI ROAD 177 A TANK CRUSHING DOWN THE ENEMY’S WIRE 177 SLEDGE TOWING TANK TAKING UP SUPPLIES 200 BERMICOURT CHATEAU NEAR ST. POL. TANK CORPS MAIN HEADQUARTERS 200 GUN-CARRYING TANK TAKING UP A HOWITZER 201 A WHIPPET GOING IN 201 SMOKE SCREEN AND SEMAPHORE 304 A TANKADROME 304 MOVING UP. BATTLE OF AMIENS 305 THE ARMOURED CARS GOING UP 305 GERMAN ANTI-TANK GUNNERS. (From a photograph found on a prisoner) 336 AN ANTI-TANK GUN IN A STEEL CUPOLA (YPRES) 336 A CAPTURED GERMAN TANK 337 A GERMAN ANTI-TANK RIFLE 337 INFANTRY ADVANCING BEHIND TANKS. A PRACTICE ATTACK AT BERMICOURT 368 THE ST. QUENTIN CANAL TUNNEL, BELLICOURT 369 CARRIER PIGEON BEING RELEASED 369 HIS MAJESTY THE COLONEL-IN-CHIEF AND GENERAL ELLES 384 MANUFACTURE 385 THE WESTERN EDGE OF MORMAL FOREST 396 A “WIRELESS” TANK 397 MAP OF TANK OPERATIONS, AUGUST–NOVEMBER, 1918 416 THE TANK CORPS CHAPTER I A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE TANK, ITS CREW AND ITS TACTICAL FUNCTIONS, AS THEY WERE AT THE DATE OF THE ARMISTICE I The secrets of the Tank Corps have been so well kept that there are few civilians who even now know anything of Tanks or their crews beyond what might be learned from photographs, or a distant view of “Egbert” or some other War Bond or Olympian Tank. The Censorship has seen to it that the civilian has had no opportunity of making himself familiar with the tactical opportunities and problems that the use of Tanks has introduced or with the conditions under which Tank crews fight. It is for the civilian reader that the present chapter is intended. He is to be given some idea of the oak tree before he is invited to dissect the acorn.