Instead of sending all machines up on contact and counter-attack patrol, as many machines as possible were reserved for counter-gun work. From this time onwards the tendency was to concentrate more and more on this important duty, and as fresh experiences were gained this work grew more and more successful. Fortunately, just before the Third Army attack began, on August 21, No. 73 Squadron (Sopwith-Camels) was attached to the Tank Corps for this form of co-operation.
The tactics adopted in this counter-gun work are interesting. To send down zone calls was useless, as the German gunners opened fire, as a rule, when the tanks were but 1,000 yards away. Immediate action was, therefore, necessary, and this was taken by bombing and machine-gunning hostile artillery until the tanks had run over the emplacements. The method of locating the hostile gun positions consisted in carefully studying the ground prior to the attack by consulting maps and air photographs, and from this study to make out a chart of all likely gun positions. On September 2 a most valuable document was captured which set forth the complete scheme the Germans had adopted in connection with the distribution of their guns for anti-tank work; further, in this document were described the various types of positions anti-tank gunners should take up. By the aid of this document and a large-scale map it was possible to plot out beforehand the majority of possible gun positions. As each of our aeroplanes had only about 2,000 yards of front to watch, the result was that all likely places were periodically bombed. In this way, by selecting the likely places beforehand, a great number of anti-tank guns were spotted as soon as they opened fire, and thus immense service was rendered to the tanks.
August 21 was the most disappointing day No. 8 Squadron experienced whilst attached to the Tank Corps. The morning was very foggy and it was quite impossible for the machines to leave the ground until 11 a.m., a little over six hours after zero, which was at 4.55 a.m. In spite of this the counter-gun machines were not too late to carry out useful work against several batteries; this work was chiefly carried out by No. 73 Squadron, which was quite new to the work. The value of the experience gained on this day was amply demonstrated by the effective work carried out by this Squadron on the 23rd, when many hostile guns were attacked and their crews scattered. A good example of the valuable work carried out by No. 73 Squadron occurred on September 2.
A gun was observed being man-handled towards Chaufours wood; 800 rounds were fired at it, the gun crew leaving the gun and seeking security in the wood. A little later on this crew, emerging from the wood, attempted to haul the gun into it; fire was once again opened by the aeroplane, but in spite of it the crew succeeded in their object. Bombs were then dropped on the wood, and no further movement was observed.
On September 29 a wireless-signal tank was used as a dropping station. This proved a most useful innovation, for one aeroplane dropping its message at this station found, on its return home, that this message had been received by the headquarters to which it was directed within a few minutes of it having been dropped, in fact, far quicker than it would have been had the aeroplane dropped it at the headquarters itself.
The dropping of messages to tanks in action was also successfully accomplished during the 29th. One of these messages sent down the information that the Germans were still holding the village of Bony; a group of tanks, receiving this, at once wheeled towards Bony and attacked it.
On October 8 aeroplanes once again carried out useful co-operation with the tanks. The following account is taken from the report of an aeroplane the pilot of which observed the tanks attacking Serain:
“As the tanks were approaching we dropped bombs on various parties of Germans who were in the village. The tanks were then surrounding the village, one going right into the centre of it; a second attacked the orchard to the south, mopping up parties of Germans; whilst a third came round the north of the village and was approaching a small valley in which were 200 to 300 Germans covered by a stretch of dead ground. On seeing the tank approaching the Germans fled eastwards, whereupon we flew towards them firing our machine guns, doing great execution.”
Such actions as these were of daily occurrence and they only went to prove what the headquarters of the Tank Corps had long held—namely, that the co-operation of aeroplanes with tanks is of incalculable importance, the aeroplanes protecting the tanks and the tanks protecting the infantry. In the future, no doubt, not only will messages be dropped and hostile guns silenced, but the commanders of tank battalions will be carried in the air, these officers communicating with their machines by means of wireless telephony, and supplies of petrol will be transported by means of aeroplane for the replenishment of the tanks.