THE FALL OF THE VON DER GOLZ REDOUBT
ON clearing the other end of the captured village of Néancourt Ralph
was able to form a fairly comprehensive idea of the present state of
operations.
The Von der Golz Redoubt, one of the strongest positions in the
boasted Wotan Line, was still held by the Huns. The British guns were
thundering furiously against it. The marvel was that the men could
stand such a gruelling, but the Huns did, keeping to the shelter of
their deep dug-outs and manning the defences the moment the guns
"lifted." Hundreds of Prussians must at that moment be entombed in
those dug-outs, of which the entrances had caved in under the
terrific power of the H.E. shells, yet hundreds more were available
to hold the redoubt "at all costs."
During the lull between the cessation of the bombardment and the
numerous but hitherto fruitless infantry assaults British airmen had
flown over the redoubt, bombing the defences and even employing
machine-gun fire against the tenacious grey-coats. The airmen were in
turn attacked by Hun machines, and during the progress of the
fighting on land combats in the "vasty air" were taking place
unheeded by the grimly contesting troops in and around the Von der
Golz Redoubt.
Deftly picking her way betwixt the scores--nay, hundreds--of bodies
of dead and wounded that littered the ground, Setley's Tank
approached the closely grouped Tommies who, hugging the earth to
avoid the ubiquitous machine-guns, were awaiting the order to
advance.
Of the other Tanks the tops of three could be discerned showing above
a rise in the terrain. Two more had just advanced against the
formidable defences, and both had failed gloriously.
"The guns are lifting, sir," reported Sergeant Alderhame.
"Good business!" muttered Ralph. "I'm fed up with this inaction.
Another ten minutes will decide whether we are booked or not."
Crunching her way over the shallow trenches held by the British
stormers, the Tank floundered through the vast shell-craters that up
to a few minutes before had been torn up by the British guns. Quite
recently there had been a system of trenches there--those deep,
concrete-reinforced, scientifically constructed ones that had taken
the Huns months to perfect. Every trace of their earthworks had been
obliterated.
Beyond lay a triple line of barbed wire. By one of those freakish
circumstances the entanglements had escaped the devastating hail of
shells. A few posts had been shattered, some strands of wire cut
through, but, generally, this defence work was as efficacious as
ever, as the crowd of bodies in khaki and field-grey that were "hung
up" on the tenacious barbs testified.
A bomb dropped from a hostile machine fell within ten yards of the
Tank. In spite of her bulk and weight, the huge fabric trembled under
the concussion.
"Beastly mean trick!" thought Ralph. "That Hun airman knows that we
cannot see him, and that we don't carry antis. Wonder what our fliers
are doing to let him amuse himself in this manner?"
With a sickening crash a biplane came to earth, right in the path of
the moving Tank. A glance at the twisted wreckage showed that the
infamous Black Cross was painted on the planes. Ralph had a smart
answer to his question. Our airmen had been busy up aloft.
Setley did not trouble to turn aside his command. Right over the
debris of the German biplane she waddled, crushing metal and wood
into an unrecognizable pulp, and then thrust her blunt nose into the
outer line of barbed wire.
Like a rhinoceros tearing up jungle grass with its formidable horns
the Tank set about to destroy the entanglements. Posts snapped off
like carrots, coils of wire suddenly released from tension quivered
in the air until borne down and buried deep in the earth by the broad
traction bands of the landship. The while machine-gun bullets rattled
harmlessly against her armoured hide, bombs exploded on, against, and
underneath the terrible war-machine. The car of Juggernaut would cut
a very poor show compared with this motor-propelled fortress.
Other Tanks were engaged in similar operations, keeping parallel to
the line of direction of the hostile trenches and methodically
uprooting the entanglements in as many minutes as it had taken the
Germans days to set up in position. Having completed this part of the
programme the Tanks made for the sand-bagged parapet at the raised
end of the glacis, while simultaneously with this movement the
whistles went, and the British infantry rushed forward with an
irresistible _élan_.
Their attention divided between the terrifying landships, that were
crunching over emplacements and trenches, and the glittering array of
bayonets, the German machine-gunners, unfortunately for them, did not
take into account a couple of British biplanes, Cleaving through the
dense eddying clouds of smoke and recklessly disregarding the
bursting shells the intrepid airmen descended to within a hundred
feet of the Von der Golz Redoubt and the adjacent trenches. A hail of
bullets from the airmen's Lewis guns--death-dealing hornets--caught
the Huns unawares, creating havoc in the dense masses of grey-coated
infantry.
Poison gas shells added to the horror of the desperate struggle.
Aerial torpedoes, missiles from trench mortars, and the deadly shells
from the Stokes' guns, rained upon the enemy position. It was a
wonder that the Huns stood it as they did; yet, with their back to
the wall and unable to retreat or even to take shelter in their deep
dug-outs, they fought with a courage that could only be described as
fanatical.
Ploughing her way through the mazes of barbed wire Setley's Tank came
astride a deep trench that flanked one side of the redoubt to where
the glacis terminated in what was a few hours before an elaborately
constructed covered way bristling with loopholes, each one of which
showed the muzzle of a machine-gun. Now there was little left but a
crumbling mound of earth and disrupted sand-bags, in which
half-buried Germans still maintained a furious but erratic
rifle-fire.
Almost before he was aware of it Ralph found himself within the once
considered impregnable redoubt. There was practically nothing to mark
its position. It was only when he found himself confronted by a
landship strongly resembling his own that he realized that he had
gained his objective, for the oncoming Tank was not, as he at first
imagined, one of German workmanship, but a British machine that had
entered the redoubt on the opposite side.
Narrower and narrower grew the encircling ring of khaki. With bomb
and bayonet the British infantry swept the flattened earthwork, until
the surviving Huns, finding further resistance useless, threw down
their arms and raised shouts of "Kamerad." Greatly to their surprise
they found that, contrary to the statements of their officers, the
British Tommy is a generous victor. As if by magic the heat of combat
gave place to a light-hearted, almost considerate, treatment of the
remnant of the garrison of the redoubt, and it was by no means an
uncommon sight to see a British soldier bind up the wounds he had
inflicted on a German only a few minutes previously.
The paucity of prisoners testified to the stubbornness of the enemy
resistance. Quickly the captives were formed up and marched to the
advance cages--a task not without great peril, since the German
gunners, according to their customary indifference to their ill-fated
comrades, were putting up a barrage behind the captured position.
With the clearing of the remnants of the garrison the victorious
Tommies began to put the shell-tortured ground into a state of
defence. They were now well astride the vaunted Hindenburg Line, and
it was pretty certain that the Huns would make a strong and
determined counter-attack in order to attempt to wrest the position
from the victors. The attack would be soon--before the British heavy
guns could be moved forward, and already the railway corps were
placing sections of rails in position to enable the twelve- and
fourteen-inch monsters to be sent forward. Once they were in position
the Von der Golz was lost for good and all to the Huns, and they knew
it.
There was no rest for the Tanks that had escaped being placed _hors
de combat_. Orders were given for the landships to push ahead and
hold the counter-attacking force in check.
"Independent action, you know," remarked the commanding officer of
the Landship Section. "So out you go, and the very best of luck."
Ralph knew what that meant. It was one of the most hazardous
enterprises that a Tank could be called upon to perform. With a
quickening of his pulses he gave the word for the motors to be
started once more and steered his armoured mobile fortress in the
direction of the unknown territory that for the last two years or
more had been firmly held by the Huns.
"By Jove! Alderhame," he exclaimed, "we're on a big thing this time.
Wouldn't miss it for worlds."
"Let's hope we won't," added Sergeant Alderhame grimly. "The present
world is quite good enough for me for a long time to come, Boches
notwithstanding."