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“Just before dawn, however, a fresh difficulty arose, and tried still further the already severely tried expedition. It began to snow, and the white tape which was to guide the Tank was obliterated.”

Captain Hotblack (now Major, D.S.O., M.C.), the Reconnaissance Officer who had done the taping, was the only man who had reconnoitred this piece of ground, and he immediately volunteered to lead the Tank upon which so much depended.

Taking what little cover he could in shell-holes full of ice and water, he walked in front of the Tank past our front line close up to the Triangle. Marvellously enough, not one among the hail of bullets which greeted him and the Tank found its mark. Having succeeded in this arduous enterprise and having guided the machine to its position, he returned to report on the progress of the action. The light was now improving, and the Tank started its “rolling up” movement along the German trenches.

The machine was now so much in the midst of the enemy that the German artillery did not dare to open upon it, and the Tank poured in a devastating fire from its machine-guns not only upon the men in the trenches, but also upon some horse transport behind the enemy lines.