Tank Corps Headquarters heard it all. They knew well enough that in well-informed but irresponsible London circles the remark, “I hear the Tanks are going to be abolished,” was a common one; that often in such gossip circumstances of person and date would be added. For all this they had no certain refutation. If only Tanks could even now do something that would catch the eye of authority. Some little “show” exploit. Something that would at least make a summary condemnation unlikely. The battle would have to be continued some day. Tanks would have to play their part, but in that intolerable swamp was it likely that they would do anything except engulf themselves--literally and metaphorically--yet deeper than before? There, however, lay the Tanks’ best hope. Chance and their own exertions might bring them a success even in Flanders. III Thirty-six Tanks belonging to the 1st Brigade had remained in Army Reserve. On August 16, the weather having been less wet for a day or two, the first and most considerable of a series of renewed attacks was to be made. Twelve Tanks were to co-operate with the infantry on the Langemarck-St. Julien front. On the night of the 13th the Tanks began to move up. The roads were already congested with other traffic, and the Tanks were not to be allowed to make use of them. [37]“The country they had to traverse was all very deep in mud, and the Tanks wallowed on their bellies in ground too soft for the tracks to hold. The approach was continued during the following night, but in spite of the repeated use of unditching beams, the mutual help of Tanks in towing each other, and the valuable assistance of a Tunnelling Company, it was recognised on the 15th that none but the four leading Tanks could hope to reach the line in time to take part in the battle. These four made strenuous efforts to complete the journey the next night, but without success. None of them could overcome the difficulties of the ground, and the infantry had to go into attack without them.” The infantry attacked, and after the action a nest of pill-box strongholds north-east of St. Julien still remained untaken. Like most of these little fortresses, they had been extremely skilfully placed. An unwary advance would be trapped in their wire just within convenient range of their machine-guns. They were so small, scattered, and well concealed as to be almost impossible targets for heavy guns, and as they were built of reinforced concrete at least three feet thick, the ordinary high-explosive shell thrown by a field gun had no effect upon them. This particular nest consisted of four pill-boxes of more than average size.