Mark V tanks: One with a smokescreen and semaphore, the second moving up in the Battle of Amiens. In the latter, note the German prisoners on the left carrying a casualty to the rear on a stretcher. From The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis.

Smoke-screen and Semaphore



Moving up in the Battle of Amiens

Other views: Front, Front

Sunday, October 20, 1918

"On the 18th and 19th [October, 1918] the infantry managed to make good progress, and at 2 p.m. on the 20th we made another attack, still on the line of the Selle, north of Le Cateau.

Only four tanks of the 11th Battalion were employed. The enemy's resistance was serious, for he had been able to erect strong wire entanglements along the greater part of the line. This time, there being no available fords, the Tanks, successfully crossed the river by means of an under-water sleeper bridge, which the Sappers had secretly constructed at night, the enemy being quite unaware of its existence until, to their dismay, they saw the Tanks crossing over it.

There was severe fighting round Neuvilly, Solesmes, and Haspres, but we gained all our objectives on the high ground east of the Selle, all the four Tanks successfully reaching their final goal."

Quotation Context

Through October, 1918, the Allied advance continued as the Germans were driven back or retreated to establish a shorter, more defensible line. The Selle River was one barrier behind which they hoped to make a stand. The Battle of the Selle began on October 17, in thick fog and with the river in full flood, and continued through the 25th.

Source

The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 264, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919

Tags

1918-10-20, 1918, October, tank, sleeper bridge, bridge, Selle, Selle River, Mark V tank, Mark IV tank, tank, moving up Battle of Amiens