he British, memories not only of the previous year and of the great
forward movement which, on March 17th, had swept them over Bapaume and
Peronne, but also bitter memories of the retreat in the previous March,
which had carried them back under the overwhelming German pressure. The
capture therefore was balm to their spirits, and an English
correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, who had accompanied the British on
their previous advance, found officers and men full of laughter and full
of memories.

On all sides were the battle-fields of 1916 and 1917; Mametz Wood,
Belleville Wood, Usna Hill, Ginchy, Morval, Guillemont. The fields were
covered with battle debris, and yet to the English it was sacred ground
from the graves of the men who fell there. Those graves still remained.
The British shell fire had not touched them, but as the English advanced
there were many bodies of gray-clad men on the roads and fields, and
dead horses, and a litter of barbed wire, and deep shelters dug under
banks, and shell craters, and helmets, gas masks, and rifles thrown here
and there by the enemy as they fled. Now it was the Germans that were
fleeing, and fleeing hopelessly, sullen, bitter at their officers,
impatient of discipline.

One of the great differences between the attacks of the Allies in their
last year of the war and those of preceding years, was the increased use
and the improved character of the tanks. The tanks were a development of
the war. Before the war, however, the development of the caterpillar
tractor had suggested to a few farsighted people the possibility of
evolving from this invention a machine capable of offensive use over
rough country in close warfare. Experiments were made in behalf of the
English War Office for some time without practical results.

At last, after these experiments had resulted in various failures, a
type of tractor was finally designed which produced satisfactory
results. It was a caterpillar tractor, with an endless self-laid track,
over which internal driving wheels could be propelled by the engines. It
was not until July, 1916, that the first consignment of these new
engines of warfare arrived at the secret maneuver ground.

There were two kinds. One called the male was armed with two Hotchkiss
quick-fire guns, as well as with an armament of machine guns. The other
type, called the female, was armed only with machine guns. The male tank
was designed for dealing with the concrete emplacements