Each Tank Brigade got out a defence scheme in conjunction with the Army to which it was attached. As a rule the Tanks--which had been moved up as secretly as possible--were to lie in ambush till the last moment, and then, emerging--as General Elles described it--“like Savage Rabbits from their holes,” were to fall upon the Germans in flank or rear. His phrase struck the fancy of the Tank Corps, and the whole of this period is frequently referred to _tout court_ as “Savage Rabbits,” somewhat to the bewilderment of the uninitiated. II Their schemes prepared, their Tanks in position, after an exhaustive reconnaissance, the Tank Corps waited, a process which all troops find both tedious and demoralising, unless some really profitable means can be found of employing their time. For the Tank Corps the need of the moment was further training. Several of the Battalions had been dragged untimely from half-finished courses, several were almost fresh from Wool, and had still most of their tactical training to do. Everywhere there were units and individuals who had lost “school attendances” to make up. The great difficulty was that Battalions and even Companies were so spread out and scattered that it was almost impossible to collect the students for instruction. The regular curriculums were out of the question, so the directors of Tank training immediately set to work to evolve new courses that would fit the altered circumstances. In some ways the Reconnaissance Side fared best. Their chief instructional material--the actual country to be fought over--was there for their students to study, and even when the pupils were so scattered that a sufficient audience could not be collected for a formal lecture, many ingenious little practical schemes could be carried out and written work could always be done. They had a fairly definite standard to aim at. Had the battalions remained in the training areas, every officer and man would have been put through a five days’ course in Reconnaissance. Under normal conditions such courses were arranged more or less as follows: _On the first day_, the students heard an introductory lecture, practised chalk layering, heard a short discourse on map reading, did a practical comparison of map and country upon which they had to answer questions. _On the second day_, visualising country from a map was taught, and practice indoors was gone through with a model. In the afternoon panorama sketching was practised, a short lecture heard, some visualising was done and the characterisation of landmarks was practised, the day being finished up by night guiding.