“The order had come to me about one in the morning, and it was nearly
three when we started lumbering out toward the enemy trenches. We had
about six hundred yards to cover. I knew little or nothing of her
motor power or speed. My concern was with the efficiency of the guns.
She pumped and swayed across ‘No Man’s Land’ at about four miles an
hour. She groaned and tossed a great deal. And in fact, made such poor
progress that my regiment, the Oxfords and Bucks, beat the old dearie
to the enemy lines. Our men were among the barbed wire of the first
line, fighting it, cutting it, knocking it down before the old ‘Razzle
Dazzle’ got into action.
“But she ‘carried on’ just the same. And when she smote the barbed-wire
obstacles, she murdered them. She crushed those barriers to what looked
like messes of steel spaghetti.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._