Working strenuously for twenty minutes the fatigue party succeeded in levelling the slope sufficiently to enable the Tank to back. Fortunately, the motors and tractor-bands were intact. The mounting of one of the quickfirers was damaged beyond repair, the other was put in order by the crew. Amidst the cheers of the men the Tank climbed, stern-foremost, out of her place of imprisonment and gained the shell-pitted street. An orderly, doubling towards the British lines, stopped by the side of the freed machine. "Can you push forward, sir?" he asked. "The infantry are being held up. There are only five Tanks left in action." CHAPTER XX THE FALL OF THE VON DER GOLZ REDOUBT ON clearing the other end of the captured village of Néancourt Ralph was able to form a fairly comprehensive idea of the present state of operations. The Von der Golz Redoubt, one of the strongest positions in the boasted Wotan Line, was still held by the Huns. The British guns were thundering furiously against it. The marvel was that the men could stand such a gruelling, but the Huns did, keeping to the shelter of their deep dug-outs and manning the defences the moment the guns "lifted." Hundreds of Prussians must at that moment be entombed in those dug-outs, of which the entrances had caved in under the terrific power of the H.E. shells, yet hundreds more were available to hold the redoubt "at all costs." During the lull between the cessation of the bombardment and the numerous but hitherto fruitless infantry assaults British airmen had flown over the redoubt, bombing the defences and even employing machine-gun fire against the tenacious grey-coats. The airmen were in turn attacked by Hun machines, and during the progress of the fighting on land combats in the "vasty air" were taking place unheeded by the grimly contesting troops in and around the Von der Golz Redoubt. Deftly picking her way betwixt the scores--nay, hundreds--of bodies of dead and wounded that littered the ground, Setley's Tank approached the closely grouped Tommies who, hugging the earth to avoid the ubiquitous machine-guns, were awaiting the order to advance. Of the other Tanks the tops of three could be discerned showing above a rise in the terrain. Two more had just advanced against the formidable defences, and both had failed gloriously. "The guns are lifting, sir," reported Sergeant Alderhame. "Good business!" muttered Ralph. "I'm fed up with this inaction. Another ten minutes will decide whether we are booked or not." Crunching her way over the shallow trenches held by the British stormers, the Tank floundered through the vast shell-craters that up to a few minutes before had been torn up by the British guns. Quite recently there had been a system of trenches there--those deep, concrete-reinforced, scientifically constructed ones that had taken the Huns months to perfect. Every trace of their earthworks had been obliterated.