Mary, Our LandShip.
Author's Note:
This is a tale of the first battle involving the British Made Tank in WW1.
Contests rules:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sargeant
Luker, let us move in line with the others. I don't want today to be an
embarrassment to the Company." The Lieutenant is giving his orders and I
am his subordinate to follow them.
"Yes, Sir.
Mary here would not disappoint us today, Sir. She is a fine lady in her
best." My name is Sargeant Ian ‘Mac’ Luker of the 1st Tank Regiment, and
this is our first battle since we came off the training ground last August. We
numbered forty-nine of us; the new Mark 1 Landships as we named. But only
thirty-two of us made it to the battlefield. The usual worries which have been
a bane were the screws in the motor that caused one-third of us to stall or
would not drive properly when it's needed. The Lieutenant and I have presented
to the top Brass on the issue but we got is a 'would be looking into' attitude.
But then we have the new thirty-two Mark 1. We named them all the Landslip and
will be joining its maiden battle of Flers-Corselette in September 1916.
Mine is the beauty
of the lot, and we in turn named her Mary for the beautiful waitress in the
Tavern. She carries with her two 6 pounder guns in the sponson on the side and
there are the two gunners of us with the Hotchkiss machine guns for any
creeping up Huns. I am the right gears man while Private Mathew takes the left
gearbox. There are altogether eight of us in this metal hull with the Lieutenant
our Commander and Driver.
"Sargeant,
tell the crew to suit up as we are given the green light," I replied my
acknowledgment to the officer with the officer cap, while my crew all donned
their tin hat helmets, goggles, and chain mail mask. We do have the gas mask
for the officers like myself but the rest of the crew all make to do with the
chain mail mask. The Lieutenant cranked up the gearbox and started up the
engine.
“Mary’s farting
here.” We all roared but soon the fart got to us in the tank. That's when it
gets all hot and stuffy in there with an eight-man crew surrounded by machinery
and ammo.
The Lieutenant hit
the side of the hull with his spanner to tell me to work the gears so we can go
forth. We don’t have any radios in the tank then. She was moving ever slow at
her own pace. The officer has clanged on the left side for Mathew to move Mary
to the left. I could not see outside but I did ask the machine gun crew to
sight me on the other Mark 1's. I was not keen to ram into any of them outside
but we had taken a bet that five more of our Landslip would be stalled behind.
“Percy stalled behind.”
Right on there for me, I won my bet with Bert that I will make it to the line
first.
Private Ian raised
his finger to showed me five indeed are stalled behind.
That’s a worrying
sign for that means we are five short on the battle. I raised my thumbs to
affirm his counts. Five a lot of money for me then. It was all the betting
rounds and I aimed to collect them. It’s for my Ma back at home.
The shelling had started
but we are moving forth regardless. You can hear the sound of the cannons and then
it was all silence before the shells hit the ground, or us.
“The tanks are
fortified to protect you.” That was the officer’s talk but we knew then if a
shell falls on us, we are dead in instant.
The ride was bumpy
as we moved over barbed wires and shell holes on the ground. The officer
clanging on the hull with intensity means we got to fire our guns soon. I
looked at the gunners and their loaders while they carried the ammo to load
onto the guns. The machine guns were shooting out there and my sight was blinded
by the metal walls. I crawled over.
"What have
you got?" I tapped on the gunner's shoulder who in turn swung over and smiled
at me. He crocks his thumbs to signal me he was testing the guns.
‘Just checking if
Mary will spit well.” I tapped him back on the shoulder to affirm his action.
Suddenly, Mary was
rocked on her side by a nearby blast. Her engine stalled on the ground and we
are all frantically trying to work the gears. The six-pounder was firing away while
we forced the gears to work. I tried everything taught to us to move the gears
but she won't be budged. In the end, I clasped my hands together for a prayer
and then slammed the spanner hard on the gear locks. Then Mary moves her body over
the uneven land.
"She is
moving. Thank God. Lets us hunt the Huns now." By then the whole tank
smelled of oil and smoke while everyone was coated with some form of grime.
Private Mathew was
clinging onto the gun vent there for some fresh air. I can see the others were
all suffering from the lack of fresh air but we will fight on. It's our duty as
the landslip’s crew.
More blasting came
around us and it was becoming more unbearable inside the lands. The officer
slides down from his seat on the driver's section. He had been shot in the ear
lobe by a Hun's sniper and needed medical attention.
“Cover for me. I
got nicked on the ear.” I jumped into officer seat to steer the landship while
he was been attended. It was my first view of the battle front.
I saw the barbed
wires and obstacles placed by the Huns to stop us from going forth. I saw the
Canadian soldiers cowering in the shell holes and looking for the next order,
or breakthrough that they can be followed on. Poor lads were the Infantry and
they are the front boys.
Bombs were dropped
everywhere with both sides exchanging fires. There are still the men advancing
despite the heavy fires from machine guns and howitzers. it's a crazy war. Then
I saw the signals and it only means one thing.
"Gas!" I
am frantically reaching for my mask for I had removed my helmet. I set in my
mask and put back on the helmet. I looked back at the officer but no one was
attending to him. I can't move either as without me guiding the landship we
could end up in the trench. I saw then the officer quivered and then shake uncontrollably
while the gas seeps into his body. I was at a loss on how to assist him but to
turn back to my task as I directed the landship over the obstacles.
I saw the bomb
coming at us and I clanged on the hull to get it to move to the right but it was moving ever slow in the uneven terrain.
“Move your butt, Mary
for God’s sake.” Then it had to happen.
The bomb scored a
direct hit on the right side of the hull causing the loss of one sponson and
three of my gunners were badly burned or scarred by the bomb fragments. There
was a fire starting inside the hull now and it was starting to burn. It was
going to spread to the ammo and drastic actions were needed.
“Abandon ship!” I
had no choice but to give the order to abandon the landship.
My remaining crews
crawled out into the no man's land and hid behind the landship. Of the eight of
us, only three made it out including me. The three of us soon crawled into a
shell hole and dug in with the rest of the other soldiers. A private handed me
a rifle and smiled. When I took it from him, I just become an infantryman
again. The whistle can be heard and it means to advance. I got up with the rest
and ran forward. It's not the same as in the landship as this time I am exposed
to gunfire without the thick amour to protect me.
But our advance
was to stop short of the Hun's trenches and we then retreated to our line. I
passed by Mary; now a burned-out husk and she is going to be left alone in this
field for now. I reached back our trench and jumped in. I collected my
remaining crew and tried to rejoin the Landship Company. I found it at the rear
of our front line and I reported to the Commander.
"Sargeant, we
lost today but there would be other days when we would win. Assemble a new crew
and find yourself another landship. We are going in tomorrow." I saluted
the Major and rounded up my new crews from the surviving ones.
Among the total of
the thirty-two landship, twenty-five made some headway into the battle. Mary
was one of the twenty-five but she did not come back with the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment