oung Australian who served in one of these new war machines
described "tanksickness" as being as bad as seasickness until you
became accustomed to the constant plunges and lurchings as the "tank"
encountered obstacles on its way. The Australian noted down his
impressions while cruising around the German lines in a "tank." A few
quotations from his diary may be of interest:

"Peppering begun at once. Thought old thing was going to be drowned in
a shower of bullets. Germans dashed up from all sides. We fired at
them point-blank. The survivors had another try. More of them went
down.... A rain of bullets resumed. It was like as if hundreds of
rivets were being hammered into the hide of the 'tank.' We rushed
through.... Got right across a trench. Made the sparks fly. Went along
parapet, routing out Germans everywhere. Tried to run, but couldn't
keep it up under our fire. Threw up the sponge and surrendered in
batches."

"One can hardly imagine any spectacle more terrifying," said an
eyewitness, "than these monsters must have presented to German eyes
when, after a hurricane bombardment, through the smoke and dust of
bursting shells, the great shapes came lumbering forward in the gray
light of dawn. The enemy evidently had no hint of what they were. They
emptied their rifles at them, and the things came rolling on. They
turned on their machine guns, and the bullets only struck sparks from
the great beasts' awful sides. In several places they sat themselves
complacently astride of the trench, and swept it in both directions
and all the ground beyond with their machine guns. Against strong
points they were invaluable, because they could thrust themselves,
secure in the toughness of their hide, in close quarters where
unprotected infantry could never get. In woods they trampled their way
through the undergrowth and climbed over or broke down barricades,
contemptuous of the machine guns and rifle fire which made the
approach of unarmored men impossible."

During this advance the British penetrated the third German line,
which was shattered at all points. Three new villages--Flers,
Martinpuich, and Courcelette--fell into British hands and more than
twenty miles of German trenches were taken. Over 100 officers and
4,000 other ranks were captured by the British.

Martinpuich, which was known to be strongly fortified by the Germans,
was the first trench to be carried by the British troops almost
without a check. Beyond this was