elf, the only way for traffic to pass was to
build a road around it. Then there was a rumbling noise within its body
which sounded like some unnatural gasoline engine, and it hitched itself
around with the ponderosity of a canal boat being warped into a dock and
proceeded on its journey to take its appointed place in the battle line.

Did the Germans know that the tanks were building? I think that they had
some inkling a few weeks before the tanks' appearance that something of
the sort was under construction. There was a report, too, of a German
tank which was not ready in time to meet the British. Some German
prisoners said that their first intimation of this new affliction was
when the tanks appeared out of the morning mist, bearing down on the
trenches; others said that German sausage observation balloons had seen
something resembling giant turtles moving across the fields up to the
British lines and had given warning to the infantry to be on the
lookout.

Thus, something new had come into the war, deepening the thrill of
curiosity and intensifying the suspense before an attack. The world, its
appetite for novelty fed by the press, wanted to know all about the
tanks; but instead of the expected mechanical details, censorship would
permit only vague references to the tanks' habits and psychology, and
the tanks were really strong on psychology--subjectively and
objectively. It was the objective result in psychology that counted: the
effect on the fighting men. Human imagination immediately characterized
them as living things; monstrous comrades of infantry in attack.

Blessed is the man, machine, or incident that will make any army laugh
after over two months of battle. Individuals were always laughing over
incidents; but here hundreds of thousands of men were to see a new style
of animal perform elephantine tricks. The price of admission to the
theater was the risk of a charge in their company, and the prospect gave
increased zest to battalions taking their place for next day's action.
What would happen to the tanks? What would they do to the Germans?

The staff, which had carefully calculated their uses and limitations,
had no thought that the tanks would go to Berlin. They were simply a new
auxiliary. Probably the average soldier was skeptical of their
efficiency; but his skepticism did not interfere with his curiosity. He
wanted to see the beast in action.

Christopher Columbus crossing uncharted seas did not u