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The strain on men and officers had been tremendous. Most of them seem to have started the battle having had no sleep for over twenty-four hours.
They were desperately anxious, too, that Tanks should prove their worth, and the Mark I. machine was too capricious to give them much assurance.
To this list of discomforts must be added that most of the men had never heard guns before, and that the lying-up places were close to our batteries.
II
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The morning of the 15th was fine with a thin ground mist, and at six o’clock the thunder of the British artillery rose to a final hurricane. The barrage crept forward, and our Tanks and infantry crossed the parapets.
The Germans seemed to have heard no breath of the nature of the new arm which was to be used against them, and the light haze added greatly to the looming mystery of the approaching Tanks.
Official documents that were later on captured from the enemy revealed something of the deep psychological effect that our Tanks had had on the German infantry. These significant admissions might have done more to convince our own High Command of the great potentialities of the new weapon than they actually did.