This was the last Tank action fought with the Army of Palestine, for, for some reason or other, the repaired and renovated Tanks were never used again.
Later, however, during the Turkish retreat, we had great trouble in rounding up the tattered and wandering Turkish rearguard.
We felt the need of some sort of sheep-dog, so a mission was sent to France to ask for a number of Whippet Tanks.
By an ironical chance, this mission reached Tank Headquarters in France on March 21, the very day the German offensive was launched. It need not be added that no Whippets were sent.
There seemed no work left for the heavies, and the Tank Detachment, therefore, handed over their machines to the Ordnance Department at Alexandria, and returned to England.
CHAPTER XIII
SUSPENSE—THE “SAVAGE RABBITS” EPISODE—THE ENEMY’S INTENTIONS
The story of the Tank Corps from the beginning of February to nearly the end of March 1918 is one of waiting and expectancy, of strategic moves to unexpected places, of diligent rehearsal for first nights upon which the curtain never rose, of endless preparations for events which never happened.
And through all the moves, in all the odd billets, or in the open fields, when—in hourly expectation of the German attack—Tanks and their crews lay ready under the hedges, run the Tank Corps’ Pinkerton-like efforts at self-improvement, its determination to finish its winter training.