ing to devour him. The Huns scurried to their funk-holes and
craters, their hiding-places, and their trenches like so many rabbits.
Still the Tank advanced, pausing now and then, astride a particularly
wide crater, and sweeping the surrounding pit-scarred ground with its
machine-guns. Up popped a German head. Zip went a bullet; and down went
the head for the last time. How many Germans were crushed in their holes
in that first advance goodness only knows.

Presently the monster stopped again. There was a pause. Nothing
happened. A minute--two minutes went by. Still nothing happened. The
Germans began to regain their courage. Heads popped up all over the
place. Enemy troops began to edge nearer and nearer to it, in spite of
the hail of bullets from our trenches. Then they began to swarm round
the strange creature the like of which they had never seen before. To
do them justice, these Germans showed exceptional courage in the face of
unknown and altogether exceptional danger.

Mr. Tank meanwhile was not a bit disconcerted by their attentions, and
continued to breathe forth flames of fire, which did great havoc in the
ranks of the sightseers. But once their curiosity was satisfied the Huns
did their level best to damage the brute. They fired at it; they
bombarded it; they shelled it; they clambered over it. All to no
purpose. Presently that ominous humming, snorting sound reached us
again, and the monster began to move away. Where it had stood the ground
was strewn with the dead bodies of German soldiers, and I was told
afterwards that over three hundred corpses were counted to the credit of
the first Tank that ever crossed "No Man's Land."

Meanwhile our boys had been busy. Following in the wake of the Tank,
they had cleaned up quite a lot of ground, and all the time, with my
camera on them, I had secured a series of fine pictures.

I don't think I ever laughed so heartily at anything as I did on the
first day that I saw the Tanks in action, and officers and men all agree
that they never saw a funnier sight in all their lives. But whilst they
amused us they put the fear of the devil into Fritz, and whole parties
of men ran forward, hands up, waving their handkerchiefs, and shouting
"Kamerad," and gave themselves up as willing prisoners in our hands.

The Tanks have been one of the big surprises and big successes of the
war.

CHAPTER XXIII

WHERE THE VILLAGE OF GUILLEMONT WAS

An Awful Specimen of War D