South-west of Villers-Bretonneux, seven Whippet machines were sent out at 10.30 a.m. to clear up the situation east of the village of Cachy. Whilst proceeding round the north-east side of this village they suddenly came upon two battalions of Germans massing in a hollow preparatory to making an attack. Without a moment’s hesitation the seven Whippets formed line and charged down the slope right on to the closely formed infantry. Indescribable confusion resulted as the Whippets tore through the German ranks, the enemy scattered in all directions, some threw themselves on their knees before the machines, shrieking for mercy, but only to be run over and crushed to death. In a few minutes no fewer than 400 Germans were killed and wounded. The Whippets, having now completed their task, viz. “clearing up the situation,” returned, one machine being put out of action by artillery fire on the journey home; in all only five casualties amongst the crews were suffered during this action.
The two most remarkable features of this little engagement are: firstly, the helplessness of some 1,200 infantry against seven tanks manned by seven officers and fourteen other ranks; and, secondly, that the tanks left their starting-point, which was 3½ miles from the scene of action, at 10.30 a.m., covered ten miles of ground, fought a battle, and were back home again at 2.30 p.m.
On April 25 further minor tank operations took place in the Villers-Bretonneux area, chiefly east of the Bois d’Aquenne and the Monument, and, on the next day, British tanks for the first time in their history co-operated with the French Army, four tanks of the 1st Battalion being ordered to assist the Moroccan Division in an attack on the Bois de Hangard. This attack was not a success, due to two quite exceptional reasons; two trees were cut down during the night, which were to have acted as landmarks for the tanks, and the smoke barrage was in error put down to the east instead of the west of the German line; consequently the tanks not only lost their direction but were subjected to an intense machine-gun fire when nearing the German position; this prevented the French infantry co-operating with them.
The month of May was chiefly spent in re-sorting the tank battalions and resting the men. The embargo on the importation of tanks from England had now been removed, and Mark V tanks were arriving in France at the rate of sixty a week. This machine, very similar in shape to the Mark IV or Mark I, was a great improvement on all former types, it being a much more mobile and handy weapon. A new system of tactics was at once got out to cover its increase in power, and training was started so as to accustom all ranks to its use.