III
Meanwhile, hectic days and still more hectic nights were being passed near Amiens.
The reader is to imagine that elaborate preparations such as were described as the preliminaries to Cambrai and which took a month to carry out, had now to be executed in a little over a week.
Reconnaissance had to be carried out, details of plans and liaison arranged, and dumps had to be made, the last on an unprecedentedly large scale, so great a number of Tanks never having gone into action together before.
In the centre (the Australian sector) certain units in the 5th Brigade had been newly equipped with Mark V. star infantry-carrying Tanks. No one was very familiar with these machines, and so, in addition to other preparations, such units had infantry-carrying to practise with their Australians. One circumstance greatly added to the fraternal feeling of the 5th Brigade towards their familiar battle partners. As soon as the final conference was ended, General Monash laid down the principle that on no consideration should any alteration be allowed in the plans as then approved. It was therefore possible for all the Tank units to work out the details of their schemes in perfect confidence.
The battlefield lay on either bank of the river Somme, which ran to the north of the area of attack, and as far as Péronne, almost at right angles to the lines of the two armies.
South of it, a number of gullies, roughly parallel to the battle front, ran down to the river from high ground which formed the watershed between the Somme and the small river Luce.
Two of these steep gullies, the Cérisy Valley, and another which ran from Morcourt almost to Harbonnières, were to be great features in the battle, forming as they did admirable cover for the concealment of batteries or for the assembling of troops for a counter-attack.
The following notes on the Luce were given to the author by Major Hotblack:—
“The river Luce, though only a small marshy stream, formed the great difficulty of the plan of operations.
“Part of it was in the French lines, and as to put up fresh bridges would have attracted the enemy’s attention, the attacking troops had to cross it in a few places and deploy afterwards in the dark.
“In that sector where the Luce flowed within the enemy’s lines, it ran diagonally across the front of attack of the Canadian Division.
“A great deal of trouble was taken in finding out all possible details of this little river, and it caused anxiety to every one concerned from the Field-Marshal himself downwards.
“The Luce sector of the front lay within the lines then held by the French, and in addition to various Reconnaissance Officers, Major-General Lipsett, commanding the 3rd Canadian Division, and Brig.-General Hankey, commanding the 4th Tank Brigade, carried out personal reconnaissance of the river in general and Domarat Bridge in particular.
“Both these General Officers had great reputations for personal gallantry, and always endeavoured to see for themselves what the conditions really were before committing their troops.
“The French troops then holding the line, knowing nothing beyond the fact that they were to be relieved by the British, expressed the greatest astonishment and admiration for our thoroughness and for the remarkable conscientiousness and pertinacity of our Generals and General Staff Officers, in so frequently visiting the forward positions of an unhealthy sector. We had no choice but blandly to assure them that this was their unvarying practice whenever a relief of any sort was contemplated.”
As another result of the great secrecy that had been imposed, no officer knew who else was in the secret, and on one occasion Major Hotblack and another British officer met on the banks of the Luce and each made lengthy explanations which explained everything except the real reason why they were there. Two days later these officers met at a conference on the operations, and congratulated each other on the plausibility of their several explanations. It had been no easy matter to pretend that it was quite a normal thing for them to paddle in the Luce in close proximity to the enemy.
On the day all went well, however, and the information about the river proved to be correct to the last detail, and as had been anticipated, though the bridges in the enemy lines had been blown up, the gaps were sufficiently small for Tanks to cross on the abutments.
Generally speaking, the going was good, and the fact that the weather had been reasonably fine for some time before the day of attack made our preparations the easier.
All night, for four or five nights before the battle, the carrying Tanks had plied up and down, forming dumps of tens of thousands of gallons of petrol and water and millions of rounds of ammunition.
At last the time came for the final moving up of both the fighting and supply Tanks to their assembly positions, about two miles behind the lines.
No. 1 Gun Carrier Company of Tanks had been allotted to the 5th Australian Division, and lay up in an orchard north of Villers-Bretonneux.
All went well till the late afternoon of August 7, when a chance shot from the enemy set one of these Tanks blazing.
The enemy promptly began to shell the area heavily, and destroyed nearly the whole Company of Tanks and their loads. It was on this occasion that Second Lieutenant Henderson Smith was awarded the Military Cross.
The following account of his action appears in the list of “Honours and Awards”:—
“As soon as the first Tank was hit, Second Lieutenant Smith rushed to the scene and collected men to aid him, and so initiated the work of rescuing the Tanks. He showed the utmost skill in organising the withdrawal of Tanks from the blaze.
“Although several of his helpers were men from other units and inexperienced in Tank work, this gallant officer succeeded in moving two Tanks away from the heart of the fire. This bold action undoubtedly enabled the people on his right to save three Tanks. Unfortunately these two Tanks were hit and set on fire by the explosions on other Tanks. On each occasion Second Lieutenant Smith was the last to leave the blazing machine. The Tanks were loaded with explosives for the infantry, gun-cotton, bombs, trench mortars, etc., besides two fills of petrol each.”
The shelling was an uncomfortable incident, not only because of the loss at the last moment of the machines and of the masses of stores which they carried, but because such a bombardment might be an indication that the enemy suspected the presence of Tanks.
However, as at Cambrai, there was nothing to be done, and it remained only to try to hurry forward more stores to replace those which had been burnt. This was successfully accomplished.
Final lying-up places for the 300 heavy Tanks had been arranged all along the front at about 4000 yards from the front line.
At about the time when the Tanks were moving up to these “jumping-off places” the enemy may have been somewhat puzzled to observe that a number of large aeroplanes with exceedingly noisy engines kept flying about between the lines. In any case, what he did not observe was the noise made by 300 advancing Tanks.