The Tank Corps

United Service Club,
July 28, 1919.

CHAPTER		PAGE
	Introduction	[v]
I	A Brief Account of the Tank, Its Crew and Its Tactical Functions, As They Were at the Date of the Armistice	[25]
II	The Earliest Tanks, General Swinton, Admiral Bacon,—the Holt Tractor and the Evolution of the “Land Cruiser”	[31]
III	The Tank Corps in Embryo	[46]
IV	The First Tank Battles—The Attack on Morval, Flers, the Quadrilateral, Thiepval, and Beaumont-Hamel	[57]
V	Winter Training, Expansion and Readjustments	[77]
VI	The Battles of Arras and Bullecourt	[89]
VII	The Battle of Messines and the “Hush” Operation	[110]
VIII	The Flanders Campaign—Preparations for the Third Battle of Ypres	[124]
IX	The Third Battle of Ypres	[138]
X	The First Battle of Cambrai	[160]
XI	Three New Types of Tank—The Depot—Central Workshops	[190]
XII	The French Tank Corps—American Tanks and British Tanks in Egypt	[209]
XIII	Suspense—The “Savage Rabbits” Episode—The Enemy’s Intentions	[235]
XIV	The March Retreat	[243]
XV	The Equilibrium—Minor Actions—Hamel—The Ballon D’Essai	[265]
XVI	With the French—The Battle of Moreuil	[280]
XVII	The Battle of Amiens, or Battle of August 8	[288]
XVIII	The German Attitude—“Man-Traps and Gins”—The Battle of Bapaume	[323]
XIX	Breaking the Drocourt-Quéant Line—The Battle of Epehy	[341]
XX	The Second Battle of Cambrai, or the Battle of Cambrai-St. Quentin	[361]
XXI	The Second Battle of Le Cateau—The Running Fight	[380]
XXII	The Rout—Mormal Forest—The Battle of the Sambre—The Armistice	[392]
	Epilogue	[402]
	Index	[417]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Major-General Hugh Elles, C.B., D.S.O. From a portrait by Sir William Orpen, A.R.A.	[Frontispiece]
	FACING PAGE
General Arrangements of Mark V. Tank—Front View	[28]
General Arrangement of Mark V. Tank—Sectional Elevation	[28]
General Arrangement of Mark V. Tank—Sectional Plan	[29]
Diagram Showing Adaptation to the “Large-Wheeled Tractor” Idea	[29]
The Original Thiepval Mark I. Tank with Anti-Bomb Roof and “Tail”	[64]
Field Camouflage	[64]
A Derelict. Valley of the Scarpe	[96]
A Burning Tank	[96]
“Direct Hits”	[97]
Bellied on a Tree-Stump and Subsequently Hit	[97]
A Flanders Pill-Box	[132]
The Unditching Beam in Action	[132]
The Steenbeek Valley Before the Battle	[133]
The Steenbeek Valley After Bombardment	[133]
A Deadly Swamp (the Wrecks of Six Tanks May Be Counted)	[144]
“Clapham Junction” Near Sanctuary Wood	[145]
“The Salient”	[145]
Preparing for Cambrai. A Train of Tanks with Fascines in Position	[176]
The Bapaume-Cambrai Road	[177]
A Tank Crushing down the Enemy’s Wire	[177]
Sledge Towing Tank Taking up Supplies	[200]
Bermicourt Chateau near St. Pol. Tank Corps Main Headquarters	[200]
Gun-Carrying Tank Taking up a Howitzer	[201]
A Whippet Going In	[201]
Smoke Screen and Semaphore	[304]
A Tankadrome	[304]
Moving Up. Battle of Amiens	[305]
The Armoured Cars Going Up	[305]
German Anti-Tank Gunners. (From a photograph found on a prisoner)	[336]
An Anti-Tank Gun in a Steel Cupola (Ypres)	[336]
A Captured German Tank	[337]
A German Anti-Tank Rifle	[337]
Infantry Advancing Behind Tanks. A Practice Attack at Bermicourt	[368]
The St. Quentin Canal Tunnel, Bellicourt	[369]
Carrier Pigeon Being Released	[369]
His Majesty the Colonel-in-Chief and General Elles	[384]
Manufacture	[385]
The Western Edge of Mormal Forest	[396]
A “Wireless” Tank	[397]
Map of Tank Operations, August–November, 1918	[416]

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I