But in reality rival machines constituted but a small part of the German anti-Tank measures, for, as we have said, after the victories of July and early August, these begin to be panic-stricken in their elaboration, and after the Battle of Amiens, we find Ludendorff himself pouring out his soul on the subject.
He obviously realised that anti-Tank defences had been neglected, and he probably saw also that this neglect was going to be difficult to explain to an Army and a public which, as the result of failures, were about to become extremely critical of their leaders.
After the Battle of Amiens, therefore, the Germans began feverishly to set their house in order, and we find special Staff Officers appointed at the Army, Corps, Divisional and Brigade Headquarters, whose sole duty it was to organise the anti-Tank defences within their formation.
A special artillery was told off and divided into two sections. The first was to provide a few forward silent guns in each divisional sector. They were to remain hidden till the moment of our attack, and then to concentrate upon our Tanks. These guns, however, proved apt to be smothered by our barrage, or not to be able to distinguish their prey in the half-light of our dawn attacks. Secondly, there were to be reserve guns whose duty it was to go forward and take up previously reconnoitred positions after the Tank attack had been launched. It was generally from these pieces that the Tanks had most to fear. Finally, all German batteries, including howitzers, had general instructions to plan their positions in such a way that advancing Tanks would be subject to a direct fire at about 500 or 600 yards range. In the event of a Tank attack, the engagement of our machines was now to be the first call upon the artillery, to the exclusion of counter-battery or any other work. As for the infantry, the chief rôle allotted to them was “to keep their heads,” and “to keep calm.” Other Orders instructed them to move to a flank in the event of a Tank attack. “No advice was given, however, as to how this was to be done when Tanks were attacking on a frontage of twenty or thirty miles.”
A large armoury of special anti-Tank weapons arose, and of these the most important was the anti-Tank rifle, of which we have spoken before.
[82] “The weapon weighed 36 lb. and was 5½ feet long. It had no magazine and fired single shots, using A.P. ammunition of .530 calibre. It was obviously too conspicuous and too slow a weapon to be really effective against Tanks, though the steel core could penetrate the armour of British Tanks at several hundred yards range.
“The chief disadvantage of the anti-Tank rifle, however, was that the German soldier would not use it. He was untrained in its use, afraid of its kick, and still more afraid of the Tanks themselves. It is doubtful if one per cent. of the A.T. rifles captured in our Tank attacks had ever been fired.”
Road obstacles, such as carts full of stones, linked up with wire cables, concrete stockades and mines, provided a good deal of the rest of the enemy anti-Tank stock-in-trade. Of mines there was a considerable variety. They ranged from elaborate specially made pieces of apparatus to high explosive shells, buried and hastily fitted with a device by which the weight of the Tank exploded them.
They were sometimes buried in lines across roads, and sometimes extensive minefields were laid. Their singular ineffectiveness always seemed somewhat mysterious to members of the Tank Corps, the proportion of effort to result seeming always many tons of mine to each Tank damaged.
However, we always thought we might some day encounter a really effective type of mine, and possibly the Germans were satisfied if their efforts so much as made our monsters walk delicately, for in an elaborate document, giving every kind of anti-Tank defence instructions, they somewhat pathetically conclude: “Every obstacle, even if it only checks the hostile Tank temporarily, is of value.”