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itself. Armored automobiles were of no service at all, because they could not pos

A FRENCH TANK WITH SKIDS AT EACH END.

sibly travel over the shell-pitted ground of

No Man's Land. The Russians tried a big steel shield mounted on wheels, which a squad of soldiers would push ahead of them, but this plan failed because the wheels would get stuck in shell-holes. A one-man shield on wheels was tried by the British. Under its shelter a man could steal up to the barbed wire and cut it and even crawl up to a machine-gun emplacement and destroy it with a hand-grenade. But this did not prove very successful, either, because the wheels did not take kindly to the rough ground of a battle-field.

AND now we come to the third chapter of our story. Just before the great war broke out, Belgium, poor unsuspecting

Underwood & Underwood

THE LIGHT FRENCH "MOSQUITO" TANK.

Belgium, was holding an agricultural exhibition. An American tractor was on exhibition. It was the one developed by Mr. Holt, and its remarkable performances gained for it a reputation that

spread far and wide. Colonel E. D. Swinton of the British Army heard of the peculiar machine, and immediately realized the advantages of an armored tractor for battle over torn ground. But in the first few months of the war that ensued, this idea was forgotten, until the effectiveness of the machine-gun and the necessity for overcoming it recalled the matter to his mind. At his suggestion a caterpillar tractor was procured, and the military engineers set themselves to the task of designing an armored body to ride on the caterpillar-tractor belts. Of course the machine had to be entirely re-designed. The tractor was built for hauling loads, and not to climb out of deep shell-holes; but by running the traction belts over the entire body of the car and running the for

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ward part of the tractor up at a sharp angle that difficulty was overcome.

In war, absolute secrecy is essential to the success of any invention, and the British engineers were determined to let no inkling of the new armored automobiles reach the enemy. Parts of the machines were made in different factories, so that no one would have any idea of what the whole would look like. At first the new machine was known as a "landcruiser" or "land-ship"; but it was feared that this very name would give a clue to spies, and so any descriptive name was forbidden. Many of the parts consisted of rolled steel plates which might readily be used in building up vessels to hold water or gasolene; and in order to carry

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out this delusion the name "tank" was adopted. The necessity of guarding even the name of the machine was shown later, when rumors leaked out that the machines were being built to carry water over the desert regions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Another curious rumor was that the machines were snow-plows for use in Russia. To give some semblance of truth to this story, the parts were carefully labeled, "For Petrograd."

Probably never was a military secret so well guarded as this one, and when, on September 15th, 1916, the waddling steel tractors loomed up out of the morning mists, the German fighters were taken completely by surprise. Two days before, their airmen had noticed some peculiar machines which they supposed were armored automobiles. They had no idea, however, that such formidable monsters were about to descend upon them.

The tanks proceeded leisurely over the shell-torn regions of No Man's Land, wallowing down into shell-holes and clambering up out of them with perfect ease. They straddled the trenches and paused to pour down them a stream of machine-gun bullets. Wire entanglements were nothing to them; the steel wire simply snapped like thread. The big brutes marched up and down the lines of wire, treading them down into the ground and clearing the way for the infantry. Even trees were no barrier to these tanks. Of course they did not attack large ones, but the smallish trees were simply broken down before their onslaughts. As for concrete emplacements for machine-guns, the tanks merely rode over them and crushed them. Those who attempted to defend themselves in the ruins of buildings found that the tanks could plough right through walls and bring them down in a shower of bricks and stone. There was no stopping these huge monsters, and the Germans fled in consternation before them.

There were two sizes of tanks; the larger aimed to destroy the machine-gun emplacements, and they were fitted with guns firing a shell, while the smaller tanks, armed with machine-guns, devoted

themselves to fighting the infantry. British soldiers following in the wake of the bullet-proof tank were protected from the shots of the enemy and were ready to attack them with bayonet when the time was ripe. But the tanks also furnished an indirect protection for the men. It was not necessary for them to conceal themselves behind the big tractors. Naturally, every Hun who stood his ground and fought directed all his fire upon the tanks, leaving the British infantry free to charge practically unmolested. The success of the tank was most pronounced.

In the meantime the French had been informed of the plans of their allies, and they set to work on a different design of tractor. It was not until six months later that their machine saw service. The French design differs from the British mainly in having the tractor belt confined to the wheels instead of running over the entire body of the tank. It is more blunt than the British and is provided at the forward end with a steel cutting-edge, which adapts it to break its way through wire entanglements. At each end there are two upward-turning skids which help it to lift itself out of a hole. The larger machines carry a regular 75-millimeter (3-inch) field-gun, which is a very formidable weapon. They carry a crew of one officer and seven men.

Life in a tank is far from pleasant. The heat and the noise of machinery and guns is simply terrific. Naturally, ventilation is poor and the fumes and gases that accumulate are most annoying, to say the least. Sometimes the men are overcome by them. But war is war, and such discomforts have to be endured.

But the tank possesses one serious defect which the Germans were not slow to discover. Its armor is proof against machine-gun fire, but it cannot ward off the shells of field-guns, and it is such a slow traveler that the enemy does not find it a very difficult task to hit it with a rapidfire gun if the gunner can see his target. And so the Germans ordered up their guns to the front lines, where they could. score direct hits. Only light guns were

used for this purpose, especially those whose rifling was worn down by long service, because long range was not necessary for tank fighting.

When the Germans began their great

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A WHIPPET-THE LITTLE BRITISH TANK THAT CAN TRAVEL TWELVE MILES AN HOUR.

driye, last spring, it was rumored that they had built some monster tanks that were far more formidable than anything the Allies had produced. Unlike the British, they did not use the tanks to lead the army, but to follow and destroy small nests of French and British that were left behind. When the French finally did capture one of the German tanks that had fallen into a quarry, it proved to be a poor imitation. It was an ugly-looking affair, very heavy and cumbersome. Owing to the scarcity of materials for producing high-grade armor, it had to make up. in thickness of plating what it lacked in quality of steel. The tank was intended. to carry a crew of eighteen men and it fairly bristled with guns, but it could not manoeuver as well as the British tank; for when some weeks later a fleet of the German tanks encountered a fleet of heavy British tanks, the Hun machines were completely routed.

It was then that the British sprang another surprise upon the Germans. After the big fellows had done their work, a lot of baby tanks appeared on the scene and chased the German infantry. These little tanks could travel at a speed of twelve miles per hour, which is about as fast as

an ordinary man can run. "Whippets" the British call them, because they are like the speedy little dogs of that name. They carry but two men, one to guide the tank and the other to operate the machine-gun. The French, too, have built a light "mosquito" tank, which is even smaller than the British tank, and fully as fast. It is with these machines, which can dart about quickly on the battle-field and dodge the shells of the field-guns, and which are immune to the fire of the machine-gun, that the Allies are able to make progress against the Germans.

When the Germans retreat, they leave behind them nests of machine-guns to cover the withdrawal of their armies. These gunners are ordered to fight to the very end. They look for no mercy and expect no help. Were it not for the light tanks, it would be well nigh impossible to overcome these determined bodies of men without frightful losses.

Since America invented the machinegun and also barbed wire, and since America furnished the inspiration for the

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tank with which to trample down the wire entanglements and stamp out the machineguns, naturally people are expecting our army to come out with something better than anything that has been produced so far. Just what we are doing is a military secret. The censor has, however, allowed the publication of the picture of a big tank constructed for use by our forces, as shown above.

What we are doing toward the development of other forms of the tank is a story which must wait until later in the history of the war.

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GERMANY ON THE DEFENSIVE THE September chapter in the Story of the Great War carried on satisfactorily the interesting developments of the midsummer installment. As an author of history, General Foch seems gifted with a style much more pleasing than that of General Hindenburg and his collaborator, General Ludendorff.

Friday, September 13, was General Pershing's birthday. The American army celebrated it by tendering to its commander a little token of its respect and affection: the St. Mihiel salient. The gift will stand in history beside General Sherman's Christmas present to President Lincoln in 1864.

To review in detail the events of that glorious month would be tedious and quite supererogatory (see dictionary); but the only way to tell how a business is succeeding is to strike a balance on the account books at regular intervals. In this instance it is decidedly satisfactory to the Bookkeepers of Freedom.

Against the Allies there is nothing to enter except those items which constitute the unavoidable "wear and tear" of war. In their favor are these tremendous ones: a large area of France recovered; Paris definitely saved; the Teuton morale seriously disturbed; great numbers of prisoners and guns taken; vast quantities of munitions captured or destroyed, supply bases

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OBSTRUCTION AND CONSTRUCTION: BRIDGE OVER THE MARNE DESTROYED BY GERMANS: NEW

BRIDGE BUILT BY AMERICANS

cut off, transport and communications interrupted; the St. Mihiel salient cleared, Metz threatened, the vitally important iron field of Briey endangered; the Rhine valley cities bombed-and the German

KING GEORGE AND GENERAL PERSHING "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE."

people at home awakening to the possibility of invasion of their own territory.

In addition, the Teutons had failed in their submarine campaign against the Atlantic ferry of American troops and supplies; Spain drew nearer to the limit of her endurance of German injury and insult; the Bolshevik cloud that had smothered Russia was thinning under the kindly rays of the sun of assistance by the Allies; the nations fighting for freedom were victorious in the Balkans, Bulgaria surrendered, the Turkish power was battered. On every side the Teuton structure of greed and dishonor seemed crumbling.

And what nation had better reason to rejoice than America? Europe had blessed her for supplying food, and had waited patiently for her armies to take their place in the field. But England, France, and

Italy had looked to us, as an ally in arms, more with hope than with assurance: perhaps our young armies would be unable to stand the strain-who could tell?

The events of September 13 and the following days gave the final answer to that question. An all-American army conducted a decidedly "major" operationand made a good, clean job of it. Ask the folks in St. Mihiel!

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THE DEFEAT OF THE TURKISH ARMIES.

WHEN Turkey began to squabble with Bulgaria, and both of them with Germany, discerning observers perceived the first sure signs of the approach of the inevitable collapse of the Teutonic alliance. Germany made her allies not true partners in her crimes, but victims of her utterly unscrupulous plotting and subjects of her Rule of Force. Her despotic power could hold only so long as her own armies were victorious. When the Huns began to lose, their fellow-conspirators against the world's peace were bound to lose faith in her.

We can hardly suppose that Bulgaria and Turkey ever put any real faith in Germany's promises; but they did believe in her ability to conquer the free nations, and they saw their own best advantage in association of their interests with hers. When Germany began to appear unable to "deliver the goods," the minor members of the Brotherhood of International Pirates began to weaken.

Late in September the joyous news came that the Allies under the British General Allenby had defeated, crushingly, two Turkish armies in Palestine. More than 25,000 prisoners were taken; also many guns and great quantities of munitions. Some 40,000 more Turkish troops were placed in a situation from which escape seemed impossible.

Important as was this triumphant conclusion of a well planned and swiftly executed campaign, measured by purely military results, it was still more valuable to the Allies because of the effect it must

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