GUN-CARRYING TANK TAKING UP A HOWITZER
A WHIPPET GOING IN
This phase did not last long, however, for the Company was soon sent back to join its Battalion in the Salient, where they executed an astonishing number of moves and were considerably shelled, but never succeeded in getting into action.
After that they were hurried off to do intensive training for Cambrai. Then came the battle, in the last three days of which a very much exhausted 2nd Driver Smith was wounded in the face by a bullet splash. The trouble was not serious enough to get him to England, and on his return from an all too brief stay in a Hospital in France, he again found himself at the Depot. This time, after only a day in the Reception Company and after a medical examination, he was posted for fourteen days to the Seaside Rest Camp at Merlimont.
This Rest Camp consisted of rows and rows of rather pretty bungalows built among the sand dunes. Here both men and officers were given a very pleasant time, though they were still under military discipline and had a certain number of parades to keep. For the officers there was a comfortable club, and for the men an exceedingly well-run Y.M.C.A. hut, where there were concerts or pierrot shows almost nightly—either home-grown or imported.
Games and, in summer, swimming and bathing were great features. There is no doubt, first, that the Camp was immensely popular, and, secondly, that the Tank Corps owed a good deal of its cheerful spirit and high moral to the refreshment which the Camp afforded to many a weary body and mind.
After this fortnight by the sea Smith rejoined his Battalion, and was, with the rest of the Tank world, plunged into winter training.