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15“The spirit of adventure called us to the Tanks ... and so the call for volunteers found us ready, and when the word of acceptance came, our hearts beat quickly and our hopes were high ... some of us were selected because we were machine-gunners, and others because we were motor drivers. But there were many of us to whom the machine-gun and the motor were incomprehensible things. But in the end we did not find this lack of knowledge any handicap; for the Army authorities, who were wiser than we, knew that to men of average intelligence these things were easy to learn; and to our very great amazement we found that a week was all that was necessary thoroughly to master any machine-gun ... and that it only took us two weeks to grasp the principle of the internal combustion engine and the mechanism of the Tank.”

At Bermicourt and at Wool the deficiencies of the old Thetford training were realised. The experience gained on the Somme had been assimilated. Instructors now knew exactly what they must teach, and this time the spirit of the course of training was definite and businesslike.