I

We have said that the 1st and 3rd Armies were to strike first. Tanks belonging to the 7th and 11th Battalions of the 1st Brigade were to fight with the Canadians and the 4th Corps opposite Bourlon and Gouzeaucourt, and the 2nd Brigade was to contribute the 15th Battalion, which was to co-operate with the 17th Corps opposite Graincourt and Flesquières.

Altogether fifty-three fighting Tanks were to be employed.

As in the 4th Army sector, the peculiar lie of the country was the chief influence which shaped our battle tactics, as in the 4th Army area a canal was the central feature of the attack.

In the First Battle of Cambrai the Tanks had all attacked from south of the northward bend of the Canal du Nord near Havrincourt, and so worked up the enemy’s side of this great obstacle.

Now we were in a better position to force a direct crossing, both strategically and mechanically, and the hazardous venture was to be attempted. Direct ground reconnaissance of the Canal itself was impossible, as the enemy held the hither bank in strength, but every conceivable source of information was exhaustively exploited in the endeavour to find crossing-places for the Tanks, that might offer at least a possibility of success.

Daring flights were made by special observers in low-flying aeroplanes, and a wonderful mosaic was pieced together from successive sets of air-photographs.

This was annotated, re-photographed, enlarged, and circulated to all concerned for further amplification and annotation as additional information was collected; Major Macavity of the Canadian Corps Intelligence, and Captain Oswald Birly of 1st Army Headquarters, being largely responsible for the thoroughness of this, as well as of several previous “over-the-line” surveys.

In addition, the Garde Champêtre, the Ponts et Chaussées service, and the engineers’ working drawings for the Canal, were all laid under contribution, as well as the evidence of a number of prisoners, refugees and repatriés.

From such sources and on such evidence the requisite number of crossings were at length determined on, and the Tanks definitely and severally allotted to them, for good or ill.

But when all had been done, there were one or two points about which there still remained a disquieting element of doubt.

At one of these, where aerial photographs showed a breach through the retaining banks of the dry Canal that just might, or that just might not, allow sufficient width for Tanks to cross, a crossing was imperative for the local success of the attack. Somehow, a passage had to be positively assured—and there seemed but one sure way of keeping our contract with the infantry, who were to storm the Canal at that place.

A bridge was to be formed of three old and obsolete Tanks, upon the broad backs of which their juniors and betters might scramble across and get to close quarters with the enemy. Four elderly machines, warranted unsound, were accordingly sought out, specially stiffened up with internal timber struts, and allotted the self-sacrificing task of slithering down into the Canal bed, and there swinging and shunting until they lay side by side ready for the fighters to crawl over them.

Under the heading “A Bridge of Tanks,” the actual crossing was very vividly described in the Press.

“Paris, September 28.

“A French correspondent relates the following interesting episode which happened in the battle yesterday.

“It had been decided that a Tank detachment of the older types should lead the attack, expose themselves to the enemy fire, and, on arriving at the brink of the Canal, drop themselves into the bed so as to form an improvised bridge from one Tank to the other. The fast Tanks were to follow, and this new rapid type was to pass over the backs of their older comrades, opening out a path for the infantry. Volunteers were asked for this post of danger, and for one crew wanted ten crews offered themselves. Lots had to be drawn finally to choose the heroic winners of this contest of honour. The wonderful feat was accomplished. The old scarred Tanks, covered with ancient gashes and wounds proudly gained in the fighting on the Somme, and in the fighting of over a year ago before Cambrai, took for the last time their slow and massive way, and plunged with noble abnegation over the edge. Over their bodies the new strong Tanks passed with giant strides, our soldiers followed them to victory, and shortly after eight o’clock they penetrated Flesquières.”

As a matter of fact, the actuality fell somewhat short of this description. The veteran machines found themselves quite unequal to the long trek, and even the least decrepit of the four finally doddered to a standstill whilst yet miles away from the Canal.

So there was no “Bridge of Tanks” after all, though, as things turned out, its absence embarrassed no one, with the possible though unlikely exception of the “close-up” correspondent.

Most fortunately the doubtful crossing proved practicable, and all machines, save one that struck a land-mine, passed safely over.