“‘Over 2000 prisoners in our Corps cages already, including thirty officers and a Battalion Commander.’
“‘Nine hundred prisoners, scared and starved, moral rotten.’
“‘Have reached the Blue Line,’ Signed Daphne, ‘Consolidated at Y.13.C.68 to 15.D. Central,’ only we don’t consolidate, we just hammer on line after line exactly to programme and as never before.
“‘Tanks seen zero plus 5 hours 15 minutes in the “Howitzer Valley” accompanied by infantry. Guns still in position, gunners not.’
“And so on; and our blue cardboard slips representing infantry and little red flags, denoting Tanks, march on and on and on.”
Partly owing to the weather conditions and partly because the sixty Tanks were strung out along so wide a front, Tank Commanders had been told to act more or less independently against the strong points which had been allotted to them. Once zero had struck, therefore, the history of the battle becomes, from the Tank point of view, chiefly that of the exploits of individual machines.
The only exception is the history of the eight Tanks operating with the Canadians at Vimy. Alas! their story is easily summarised.
It had been originally decided that if the weather was wet no Tanks were to operate on this sector at all, as the condition of the ground was already exceptionally bad. The eight were to be sent down to reinforce the 5th Army where the going was good.
As luck would have it, April 7 and 8 were fine, and it was determined that the Tanks should not be sent down, but should go in on the ridge. When a drenching rain set in two hours before zero it was too late to alter the plan of attack. The result was as had been expected.
Every Tank without exception ditched or got stuck in No Man’s Land or in the enemy front line.