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6/16/2025, 6:05:25 AM
>Our officer sat at the front with the driver and signalled what he wanted, and the tank would swing round to face the target. The tank would turn on its own in a wide circle, but with two gear changers you could turn it in its own length. The engine was quite powerful and vibrated the machine somewhat, but it was the movement that was worse, up and down, this way and that. I had a job sometimes to set on my target to shoot. I’d just get set and ready to fire, and bang, the tank would lurch somewhere, throw me right off. The targets were the trenches, anywhere we thought there’d be machine gun posts.
>There was no choice but to drive over the dead, you couldn’t pick your way through. If they fell in your way, you had to go over them. We never deviated the tanks for anything except targets. When we went into action, the infantry kept tucked in, clustered behind our tanks for shelter, then as soon as we captured a trench, they took over, going along the line and ferreting the Germans out. I only saw Germans when we got right on the trench, with our guns laid on each side. They had never seen anything like the tank before, and when they saw we were armed with small guns and machine guns, they gave up straightaway. A few of their machine gunners got away and we could see them silhouetted against the sky with their guns on their shoulders, going like hell back to their third lines.
>Private Archie Richards, D Company, Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps, 1897-1998
>There was no choice but to drive over the dead, you couldn’t pick your way through. If they fell in your way, you had to go over them. We never deviated the tanks for anything except targets. When we went into action, the infantry kept tucked in, clustered behind our tanks for shelter, then as soon as we captured a trench, they took over, going along the line and ferreting the Germans out. I only saw Germans when we got right on the trench, with our guns laid on each side. They had never seen anything like the tank before, and when they saw we were armed with small guns and machine guns, they gave up straightaway. A few of their machine gunners got away and we could see them silhouetted against the sky with their guns on their shoulders, going like hell back to their third lines.
>Private Archie Richards, D Company, Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps, 1897-1998
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