So ended the second phase of the battle. It had been an exceedingly vexatious business. Putting the best construction we could upon it, we had to admit to having been caught napping. The German attack had thrown us into complete, if momentary, confusion. But afterwards, when the situation could be calmly reviewed, contemporary criticism was unanimously agreed that we had, after all, suffered little but moral damage. And from that sort of damage the British have the art of deriving wholesome instruction in a unique degree. We braced ourselves up, and determined that this sharp rap over the knuckles should do us good. But to the Tank Corps the exploits of the 2nd Brigade were more directly advantageous. Amid the hubbub and confusion the Tank crews, like the Guards and the 2nd Cavalry Division, had known but one impulse--they had gone straight east against the enemy. That was the pole to which their compass pointed. While everything had been doubt and hesitation they had had but one thought, to fill and adjust their machines and hurry them forward. At 9 a.m. the Tank crews had been peacefully preparing to break camp and leave for their training area. By four in the afternoon seventy-three Tanks had been launched with decisive effect against the enemy. To many High Commanders who had believed that Tanks could only be used in a “full-dress” attack after weeks of preparation, the events of November 30 came as a joyful revelation. So for the Tanks ended the 1917 campaign. CHAPTER XI THREE NEW TYPES OF TANK--THE DEPOT--CENTRAL WORKSHOPS I The “Fighting Side” had now been for many months almost exclusively engaged with “operations,” and having fought themselves nearly to a standstill at the Battle of Cambrai, were now in as urgent need of reorganisation as were their machines of overhaul and repair. The present chronicle has also for long followed their fortunes, with not a glance to spare for the activities of the manufacturing and other organisations which played the supporting parts “Aaron and Hur” to the Fighting Side’s “Moses.” At the period we have reached it is high time to pick up the dropped histories of the other persons of the drama. For while the Tank Corps had been fighting, manufacturers had been busy, and a huge network of auxiliary services and organisations had grown up, by means of which the whole Corps was to rise rejuvenated from its ashes. Before the Tanks fought their next pitched battle the Mark V. had come into being, Whippet Tanks had been issued, a heavy type of infantry-carrying Tank had been designed, and for fast work on good roads a Battalion of Armoured Cars had grown up. Besides this, a complete system of Supply Tanks and Field Maintenance Companies for salvage and supplies had been gradually evolved during the course of the last campaign. The Tank Corps Depot had been enormously enlarged, and had moved to its final “location” on the coast near Le Tréport.