“It is natural, I think,” my correspondent continues, “that the British should pride themselves on being the introducers and leading exponents of this weapon.  What the future will bring no one knows; but if war is to persist, there can be no doubt that mechanical means in general, and tanks in particular, must develop more and more.  If any civilised state is compelled to use force, it will, if really civilised, strive to sacrifice its wealth and its material as far as possible, rather than its human lives.

“As to incidents, you asked me for some recollections of those which had particularly impressed themselves upon me.  It is hard to choose.  The Third Battle of Ypres, to which I have referred, brought out many wonderful deeds of deliberate self-sacrifice.  Take the following: 

“In one case a section of three tanks were the only ones available to support an infantry attack.  The ground over which they had to proceed was in a terrible state, and their chances of success were small.  Their only chance of success, in fact, depended on their finding in the early dawn, and in the fog of battle, one single crossing over the marshy stream.  The enemy front line was actually in front of this stream.  The officer commanding the section considered that the only way of finding the route was on foot.  With the knowledge that this meant certain death, he led his section of tanks through the bad ground under very heavy fire.  He found the bridge safely, and was killed as he reached it.  The tanks went on and succeeded in their mission, and many infantry lives were saved by this act of sacrifice.”

Then take the case of the incident of General Elles at the First Battle of Cambrai.  As my correspondent of the Tank Corps, who was in the battle, says:  “In modern warfare the place of the General Commanding is almost invariably in the rear of his troops, in a position where communications are good, and where he can employ his reserves at the right moment.  At this battle all the available Tanks (about four hundred) were being used.  There were no reserves.  So the General Commanding led the attack, flying the Tank Corps flag.  He came safely through the attack, which undoubtedly owed some measure of its success to the inspiration which this act gave to the troops.”

A quiet account!—­given by a man who was certainly not very far away from his General in the affair.  Let me supplement it a little by the story of Mr. Philip Gibbs, who seems to have seen as much as any correspondent might, of this wonderful “show” of the Tanks.