TO
PATRICK AND DAVID.
[CONTENTS.]
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | ON THE XITH CORPS FRONT | [1] |
| (October to December 1916.) | ||
| II. | FRED KARNO'S ARMY | [14] |
| (January to April 1917.) | ||
| III. | BEFORE THE FIRST BATTLE | [26] |
| (March and April 1917.) | ||
| IV. | THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULLECOURT | [50] |
| (April 11, 1917.) | ||
| V. | THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULLECOURT | [73] |
| (May 3, 1917.) | ||
| VI. | REST AND TRAINING | [89] |
| (May and June 1917.) | ||
| VII. | THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES—PREPARATIONS | [111] |
| (July 1917.) | ||
| VIII. | THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES—ST JULIEN | [131] |
| (August 1917.) | ||
| IX. | THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES—THE POELCAPELLE ROAD | [148] |
| (September and October 1917.) | ||
| X. | THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI—FLESQUIERES | [162] |
| (November 4th to 20th, 1917.) | ||
| XI. | THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI—BOURLON WOOD | [182] |
| (November 21st to 23rd, 1917.) | ||
| XII. | THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI—GOUZEAUCOURT | [194] |
| (November 24th to December 1st, 1917.) | ||
| XIII. | HAVRINCOURT TO HARROW | [210] |
| (December 1st, 1917, to January 31st, 1918.) | ||
| XIV. | THE CARRIER TANKS | [224] |
| (January 31st to August 1st, 1918.) | ||
| XV. | THE BATTLE OF AMIENS | [237] |
| (August 1st to August 27th, 1918.) | ||
| XVI. | THE HINDENBURG LINE | [257] |
| (August 27th to October 8th, 1918.) | ||
| XVII. | THE SECOND BATTLE OF LE CATEAU | [275] |
| (October 9th to October 30th, 1918.) | ||
| XVIII. | THE END OF THE WAR | [290] |
| (October 31st, 1918, to January 12th, 1919.) |
[A Company of Tanks.]
[CHAPTER I.]
ON THE XIth CORPS FRONT.
(October to December 1916.)
The village of Locon lies five miles out from Bethune, on the Estaires road. Now it is broken by the war: in October 1916 it was as comfortable and quiet a village as any four miles behind the line. If you had entered it at dusk, when the flashes of the guns begin to show, and passed by the square and the church and that trap for despatch-riders where the chemin-de-fer vicinal crosses to the left of the road from the right, you would have come to a scrap of orchard on your left where the British cavalrymen are buried who fell in 1914. Perhaps you would not have noticed the graves, because they were overgrown and the wood of the crosses was coloured green with lichen. Beyond the orchard was a farm with a garden in front, full of common flowers, and a flagged path to the door.