In imagining the rest of the story we are to remember that Captain Robertson had already been continuously under fire and without sleep for three days and nights.
The roads and every other landmark had all been wiped out by the shelling, but the bridge still stood. Captain Robertson still led his Tanks on foot, facing besides the shells an intense close-range machine-gun and rifle fire. He must have known that to go forward on foot means certain death.
He and his convoy were by now well ahead of the infantry. Still he led his Tanks on, carefully and patiently guiding them at a foot’s pace towards their objective.
They reached the bridge, and one by one the Tanks crossed over. He led them on towards a road that would take them straight up to the enemy positions, the machine-gun fire growing more and more intense as they advanced.
They reached the road, and as they reached it, Captain Robertson at last fell, shot through the head.
But the Tanks went on, and succeeded in their mission. The object for which Captain Robertson had so deliberately sacrificed his life was achieved.
The 2nd and 3rd Brigades had by now gone back to Arras to refit their machines, and to replenish their ranks. The 1st Brigade, however, made two more efforts to take part in the fighting. The battle was by now recognised as a serious British check. The Germans’ “elastic tactics” and the weather had together delayed us for so long that they had defeated us.
We had inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, and had in the act suffered still more severely ourselves.
Our hopes of clearing the coast were gone.
At the end of ten weeks we had achieved gains which had been on the programme for the first fortnight.