The Tanks acted in pairs, pulling in opposite directions at steel chains which had been previously wound round and round the bundles.
So great was the pressure thus exerted that, months afterwards, an infantryman in search of firewood, who found one of these fascines and gaily filed through its binding chain, was killed by the sudden springing open of the bundle.
When they were ready, each bundle weighed a ton and a half, and it took twenty of the Chinese coolies employed at the Central Workshops to roll one of them through the mud. On one occasion 144 fascines had to be loaded on to trucks within twenty-four hours. Concurrently with the fascines the Central Workshops achieved the making of the 110 Tank sledges. The whole of the timber needed for this work had to be sawn out of logs. Besides this they repaired and issued 127 Tanks.
III
Each Tank could only carry one fascine, and once it had dropped it into a trench had no means of picking it up again. There were, however, three broad trenches to be crossed.
This circumstance had to be taken into account in the general scheme of attack. Every detail of this plan had been most ably worked out either by Lieut-Colonel Fuller himself (G.S.O.I. to the Tank Corps), or by the Staff whom he inspired. Every movement and formation which we are going to describe had been reduced to an exact drill, several special exercises being evolved for the occasion. One of them, a simple platoon drill for the infantry, was, we are told by an official historian, based upon a drill described by Xenophon in the Cyropædia, and attributed by him to Cyrus of Persia (circa 500 B.C.).
Very briefly the main plan was as follows:—
The whole line of attack was divided into areas for three Tanks who formed a section and worked together.
Of these one was an “Advance Guard Tank,” and the other two were “Infantry Tanks.”
The advance guard Tank was to go straight forward through the enemy’s wire, and, turning to the left without crossing it, to shoot along the fire trench which lay in front of it.