The whole plan of campaign had to be reconsidered, and to take Passchendaele must now be our ultimate ambition.
On October 7 two Tanks were to operate ahead of their infantry and endeavour to capture two fortified farms. Halfway to their objective a derelict Tank blocked the way, and the two advancing machines became ditched on trying to make a détour. By the time they had been unditched it was too late to go on.
On the 9th eight Tanks were to have attacked strong points on the Poelcapelle Road. At midnight on the night of the 8th-9th they started for their objectives.
The road was everywhere encumbered with blown-up limbers and the bodies of dead teams.
Large shell-holes had been blown in it.
The Tanks managed to get on as far as the Poelcapelle cross-roads, but the enemy then began to shell the road heavily. The leading Tank ditched in a new shell-hole, the second Tank as it waited to pass was set on fire by a direct hit.
These two wrecks formed a complete barrier to the advance of the rest of the column.
No way being found by which the surviving Tanks could circumvent the obstacle, and the shelling having grown hotter, it was decided to return.
But they had not gone far on the return journey when they discovered that on the way up the last machine of the column had somehow fouled an old derelict Tank. The remaining machines were trapped, and could neither go forward nor back.
The efforts of their crews proved vain, and they were all five lost, some being hit by enemy shells and the crews killed or wounded, and some ditched in vain efforts to make their escape across country.