Scores of Tanks

Monday 19th November 1917

The adjutant of the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment tells us that Military Medals have been awarded to the following men for gallantry in action:

• 12282 Sergeant N C Scruby(1);
• 22008 Sergeant A J Turner;
• 8179 Corporal J Mason;
• 30292 Private G Ruggles;
• 23499 Private G A Holdom;
• 40629 Private C Cooper

The 8th Battalion are in the trenches at Fifteen Ravine near Gouzeaucourt. In the last hour they have, however, been moving forward to the front line. The adjutant was somewhat terse in his telegram but did mention seeing “scores of tanks”.

Sources: X550/5/3; X550/9/1

(1) Sergeant Norman Scruby MM died on 27th April 1921 aged 34, presumably of wounds

Tanks in the Wood

Saturday 17th November 1917

Intriguing news has reached us from the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. They are at a beauty spot known as Fifteen Ravine, near Gouzeaucourt having just arrived this evening. Even in the dark they have seen a large number of tanks in the woods around them. To see so many of these metal monsters together must either mean that something is afoot or, as one wag speculated, that they are breeding.

That something is afoot seems unlikely. It is very late in the year to make any major attack. Gouzeaucourt is a few miles south-west of Cambrai and there has been no major offensive operation here - the place being given up by the enemy in their retreat in March this year.

Source: X550/9/1