After a few hours of the din and heat of a tank, drivers cre worn out.
Yet in these past few days some the German and French tank drivers: have been fighting from sunrise to, sunset. It is not Infrequent that the drivers faint away from exhaustion and must be revived by their comrades. The air in the steel monsters is saturated with powder smoke and the odour of gasoline and burning all.
The ever constant danger of the drivers is that a rival machine-gun, bullet or anti-tank shell will pierce the tank's steel sides. This usually is fatal because the gasoline almost always is ignited.
French military reports said last night that in battles Involving tanks: ko these in the Cambrai sector yes~ terday the Germans were held east of Escaut. The Germans were unable to make the slightest progress despite 24 hours of heavy ighting, the reports said. Blocked at Cambrai, the Germans were forced to attempt to crash through the lowlands between Eseaut and the Somme River.
French reports admitted the Germans had been partially successful in this effort. "The Germans, it was te-ported, sent a motor-cycle division Into Peronne. This was almost a suicide column, it was said, because the men on motor-cycles and in sidecars have almost no steel protection and a few well placed machine-guns Feould wipe out the entire column
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.