Had the approach march of the Tanks been run to time, the column would almost certainly have come in for the blowing up of the ammunition dump at Achicourt, which was hit and exploded by a German shell soon after nightfall. Also, the half-dozen Tanks that were extricated from the bog too late to join in that morning’s attack, provided a small local reserve that later proved of the utmost value and had an appreciable effect on the course and ultimate issue of the battle. The ruins of Achicourt continued to smoulder through the night. [20]“It had just been very badly shelled by the enemy. Two sides of the square were burned and blasted away (it had been all right, nearly, when I passed through it a few days before). The ruins still smoked and glowed, and shadowy working parties shovelled rubbish into shell craters to make them passable for transport and cleared a way through the sorry wreck. Smashed limbers, strings of dead mules, burnt-out and buckled motor lorries, transport wagons, and the like, all rather weird and depressing, the red glow of some other conflagration as a background, and this stabbed with the flicker of white light from our guns, little and great--thousands of them (actually), a throbbing roar in the distance, and fit to deafen you anywhere near. The great thing is to go about with an open mouth. It equalises the pressure on your ear-drums. I am acquiring a permanent droop of the lower jaw. Anyway, a discouraged, shell-shaken sentry told me that one could not go through for the shells, mostly our own, exploding in the fire, and refused to let me take the car in. It did not look anything like as bad as he tried to make out--from the danger point of view--and indeed when I walked through there were the working parties stolidly filling up the craters by the light of the glowing ruins. Having fulfilled my mission, I got back to report at Brigade Headquarters about 4 a.m., and then set out again at 4.30 to follow the battle and note and report the doings of our Willies.” [Illustration: A DERELICT. VALLEY OF THE SCARPE] [Illustration: A BURNING TANK] [Illustration: “DIRECT HITS”] [Illustration: BELLIED ON A TREE-STUMP AND SUBSEQUENTLY HIT] IV At about 3.30 a.m. heavy rain had begun to fall, and all day the armies fought amid intermittent storms of sleet and drenching rain. [21]“Our bombardment was quite unimaginable--all that could possibly be desired, I should think, for accuracy, evenness and intensity. The final barrage was a really wonderful sight; just at dawn the grey sky ablaze with star shells and coloured rockets all along the line, nothing else to be seen.