“Of the twelve Tanks of the 13th Battalion which started in this action, seven reached their final objectives. Five Tanks received direct hits from enemy field guns, the crews in these cases going on with their Hotchkiss guns and assisting the infantry forward. “Eventually nine Tanks rallied to Company Headquarters, two of these being towed out of action by their friends.” Altogether in this part of the battle 2000 prisoners and the important villages of Chuignolles, Herleville and Chuignes had fallen to us before nightfall. It was the same story all along the line. In the 3rd Army area, where altogether sixty-five Tanks fought in several fairly widely separated groups, the battle was opened rather earlier by a moonlight attack, which began just before 4 a.m. against the village of Gomiécourt. In the 6th Corps’ domain, the 3rd Division was supported by ten Mark IV. Tanks of the 12th Battalion. They attacked Gomiécourt, carried it triumphantly and captured 500 prisoners. To the north of them, in the second phase, the Guards Division, with four Mark IV.’s, captured the village of Hamelincourt. At Bihucourt, just beyond Achiet-le-Grand, 300 of the enemy were forced by Tanks to surrender to the infantry. In one Whippet Tank, the officer and the sergeant were both killed, and the private drove his Tank into action by himself, when a target presented itself, locking his back axle and firing his Hotchkiss gun. Later in the morning, some of the Whippets of the 6th Battalion were operating with the infantry of the 4th Corps to the east of Courcelles. It was suddenly noticed that the artillery barrage table had been altered, and that the rate of progress of the barrage was now 100 yards in four minutes, that is to say, considerably slower than it had been originally intended. The Tanks were therefore obliged to manœuvre and wheel about, in order to let the barrage keep ahead. They were constantly under anti-Tank gun fire at this time. Seven of the Whippets, however, did not wait, but passed through our barrage, and getting beyond it, surprised and scattered large numbers of the enemy who had taken cover. As the Germans ran, the Whippet machine-gunners were able to inflict heavy casualties upon them. Meanwhile, these seven Tanks were played upon by a perfect hail of machine-gun fire, especially from the direction of Achiet-le-Grand. Changing their direction, they advanced upon the troublesome machine-guns and succeeded in cutting off several hundred of the enemy north of the village, who had been holding up an attack by our infantry. The Whippets headed and drove them neatly towards our lines, where the King’s Royal Rifles immediately took them prisoners. Achiet-le-Grand was captured with extraordinary small losses. Owing to the better weather conditions, aeroplane co-operation was much more successful throughout the day than it had been on August 21.