the western outskirts of Grain- the hill and stretching over court. An hour after dawn the skyline to the farther they drew clear of the village, slope, which we could not see. and it may be presumed that The wood dominated the whole the enemy observed them, but countryside, and beyond it he displayed no interest. At there was nothing but low dawn he had shelled a little. open country, extending to the When dawn had passed and we marshes of the Scarpe. We had made no attack, the shell- could not live north of Havrining ceased. It did not occur to court while the enemy held him that we might attack in the wood, and if we captured the middle of the morning. the wood there was nothing to prevent us from sweeping northwards to the Scarpe or westwards into Cambrai. At the moment our line ran along the southern outskirts of the wood and to the south of Fontaine, which the enemy held in force. At 9 A.M. my tanks were just about to move off, when I received a disturbing message from the Colonel. "G" would not be able to arrive in time their supplies had gone astray -one of my two sections was to tackle the wood itself. The situation was a trifle humorous, but I solemnly gave the necessary orders, instructing four of my tanks to assist the Fortieth Division in the capture of Bourlon Wood. My tanks started for the battle, and after a little breakfast I walked to the high ground south west of the village, and watched through my glasses the opening moves of the attack. Across the foreground of the picture ran the great highroad from Bapaume to Cambrai. It was wide, perfectly straight, and fringed with orderly trees. Beyond it and to my left was a low hill, which the enemy still held. Our line ran diagonally up the slope of it, and away to the west we were on the ridge. Immediately in front of me on the hillside was the great dark mass of Bourlon Wood, square and impenetrable, covering the highest point of At 10.30 A.M. the barrage fell and we could see it olimb, like a living thing, through the wood and up the hillside, a rough line of smoke and flame. On the hillside to the left of the wood we could mark the course of the battle,—the tanks with tiny flashes darting from their flanks-clumps of infantry following in little rushes-an officer running in front of his men, until suddenly he crumpled up and fell, as though some unseen hammer had struck him on the headthe men wavering in the face of machine-gun fire and then spreading out to surround the gun-the wounded staggering painfully down the hill, and the stretcher-bearers moving backwards and forwards in the wake of the attack-the aeroplanes skimming low along the hillside, and side-slipping to rake the enemy trenches with their guns. We watched one tank hesi tate before it crossed the skyline and our hearts went out to the driver. He decided, and the tank, brown against the sky, was instantly encircled by little puffs of white smoke, shells from the guns on the reverse slope. The man was brave, for he followed the course of a trench along the orest of the hill. My companion uttered a low exclamation of horror. Flames were coming from the rear of the tank, but its guns continued to fire and the tank continued to move. Suddenly the driver must have realised what was happening. The tank swung towards home. It was too late. Flames burst from the roof and the tank stopped, but the sponson-doors never opened and the crew never came out. When I left my post half an hour later the tank was still burning. . . At noon I determined to push forward into the wood and discover what had happened to my tanks. We skirted the village, walked along a sunken road lined by dug-outs, and started to cross the low ground between us and the road. I at once began to wonder whether it was not perhaps a little early yet to go forward. The path to the highroad was the object of direct or indirect machine-gun fire, and an officer, who was sitting in a trench, told me cheerfully that Cooper and Smith, his second-in-command, had already been hit by chance bullets. We pushed on, however, to the inn on the highroad, and as the road was being shelled, we took to the ditch until a shell, bursting in the ditch itself, persuaded us to use the road. We did not get very far, and soon we returned to the top of the bank at the side of the sunken road. By this time "G" battalion were beginning to arrive and their tanks were moving &cross to Anneux Chapel. After lunch I went forward again and reached a clearing on the south side of the wood, where the tanks had been ordered to rally. The enemy must have realised our intention, for the olearing was being shelled most systematioally. The only tank in the olearing belonged to another battalion. The crew, realising their danger and a little lost, evacuated their tank and joined me in a small quarry where I had temporarily taken cover. I left the quarry during a lull and walked up a sunken road into the wood, but I soon realised, first, that I should never find my tanks by tramping after them, and second, that I should be infinitely happier in my quarry. So I returned and spent the next hour in watching the rallyingplace and in moving at intervals from one side of the quarry to the other. About three I saw a couple of tanks oross the road at the inn, three-quarters of a mile away. So, as one shell had already burst on the lip of the quarry, I hastened to the oross-roads at Anneux Chapel on my way back to Graincourt, and reached battalion headquarters at four. Apparently we had captured the wood; but both Bourlon village and Fontaine - NotreDame were holding out. It was reported, too, that "E" battalion had suffered very heavily. I walked along to my dugout, where I discovered that the majority of my tanks had already returned in safety. They had realised the danger of the clearing and had come back direct to their startingpoint, followed all the way by the German gunners. that every man was wounded by flying splinters. All the tanks had done their work well, having assisted the infantry to the limit of their advance. All of them reported that they had been given excellent targets, while our own casualties were as tonishingly light. For us it was a most satisfactory day, spoilt only by the fact that Wyatt and Cooper had been wounded. My last tank had just come in when the enemy, furious at the loss of the wood, began to shell Graincourt with "heavy stuff." The Colonel, realising what must happen, had already departed for the calm of Havrineourt Wood, while we were out of the danger area. To the accompaniment of distant orashes we sat down to our evening Two of the tanks had successfully crossed the ridge and entered Bourlon village, but the infantry were prevented by the intense machine-gun fire from occupying the place. Two more of my tanks had experienced such concentrated machine-gun fire themselves meal. . . . (To be continued.) 27 VOL. CCVI.-NO. MCCXLIX. THE GREAT SEARCH. BY REAR-ADMIRAL BOYLE SOMERVILLE, C.M.G., R.N. WHEN, in the early days of 1917, it was realised that the time had come for Count Bernstorff to retire from the scene of his highly unsuccessful labours, both diplomatic and undiplomatic, in the United States, a steamer had to be found suffioiently large to convey to Europe not only himself and his staff, but also about 120 German consuls, of varying degrees, from the different States and cities hitherto favoured with their society. To these Herren (not to say "gentlemen") were attached a large collection of Frauen (not to say "ladies"), with children and nurses, their servants, their maids, and everything that was theirs. Besides these, a large number of neutrals, not necessarily connected with the Germans, decided to take advantage of the occasion; so that altogether there came to be about 800 persons to be accommodated for the journey to Europe. The fine Danish steamer Fredrik VIII was aocordingly ohartered for the trip. It was arranged between the Governments concerned that if, on her passage to Europe, the vessel put in at Halifax, Nova Scotia, for search, she should be allowed free passage through the Allied blockade on reaching European waters, and that the "Right of Visit and Search" on the High Seas should be forgone, so that she could proceed direct to Copenhagen, her destination. It was further arranged that sacks of diplomatie documents from Allied or Neutral Embassies could be carried, if they were registered and sealed at the British Embassy at Washington, and if the diplomatic messengers in charge of them received on their passports a special "visa" from our Ambassador. With the exception of these diplomatic "sacks," it was announced that every part of the great ship, every piece of luggage, every article of eargo, and every single person conveyed in her, including the crew, was liable to search. All, all-except Count Bernstorff himself, that Sacred Ambassador; and he would be immune only if he would give (as he did give) a signed undertaking that he was not carrying on his Sacred Person documents, or indeed anything, either within or without It, except the clothes that covered It. The harbour of Halifax is, in shape, long and narrow, and fairly straight. On approaching from seaward you pass up between gradually narrowing shores, fairly high on both hands, and reach the harbour proper, after making a bend round the tail of a small islet that divides the inner from the outer part. Here, within, are the town wharves, the naval dookyard, the man-of-war anchorage, and the dry dock. Steaming straight on past them, you come to a Narrows, a couple of hundred yards wide; and on passing through it, you find you are entering on a magnificent sheet of landlooked water, deep and still, bordered with forest, and with only a few signs of human possession-Bedford Basin. This basin was arranged to be the searching place for the Fredrik VIII: partly in order that the very considerable daily traffic in the harbour, both of men-of-war and merchant vessels, should not be impeded by the presence of yet another large hull, swinging round its anchor; and partly because it was very undesirable that the alien enemies conveyed in the ship, well provided as they were with eyes, prism binoculars, and cameras, should thus be enabled to make a fairly leisurely study of the defences of the port, or of the arrivals and sailings (particularly of transports), that might take place during their stay in its was sent by rail from Halifax to New York, to join the ship there, to make the passage in her, and to bring her straight into the harbour, and en into Bedford Basin without any delay. In spite of these precautions, and of the orders, twice repeated, for the night entry, given at New York to the (Danish) captain of the Fredrik VIII, the vessel arrived at 9 A.M., in full daylight; and before anything could be done to prevent it, she had come most of the way up the harbour, before being turned back by the patrol vessel, and given orders to wait outside until the evening. By this means, two excellent if fleeting views were obtained by the passengers of the defences-once on entering, and once on leaving; but as all cameras and films were relentlessly collected by us later on, no permanent record remained with them to support and embellish mental impressions; and probably little advantage was derived from this charaoteristic outpouring of German war funds, on behalf of "Intelligence." It has already been remarked that the month was February; and in the pleasant climate of that part of Nova Seotia, this means a winter banquet, with, for hors d'œuvres, bitter frost, proceeding to a thick brown soup, that is dished up in the brimming streets by the next day's alternation of rain, snow, and thaw, and is speedily followed |