On August 8, 1918, in the Battle of Amiens, a single British Whippet tank of the 6th Tank Battalion, fought its way into mechanised history. The tank, called "Musical Box" and commanded by Lieut. C.B. Arnold, wreaked havoc in the German lines. The full story of the charge of the "Musical Box" was not told till after the war by Lieut. Arnold, taken prisoner with one other of the three-man crew. But Australian infantry, following up, bore witness to the enormous casualties inflicted by the tank "which almost entirely alone had brought to battle a great portion of the rear of the German Second Army." They also found the burned-out "Musical Box." It is doubtful if any single tank in any war has ever been involved in a more brilliant fight, says Douglas Orgill in "TANK" (Heinemann, 63s.). Yet he tells the story of a single tank action in the Second World War which was in some ways comparable to the sortie by the "Musical Box". A German Tiger commanded by an SS officer named Wittman suddenly came out of a side-road upon the momentarily halted advance guard of the famous 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats), pushing towards Caen after D-Day. When the Tiger withdrew it left a total of 25 shattered and blazing vehicles on the road. Mr. Orgill's book is a fascinating history of the tank from Flanders to the SixDay War, telling at the same time, the story of tank men fighting over every kind of terrain. Tank life did have its little luxuries, denied to the infantry soldier. In the Second World War, British tank men had fresh eggs from the hens often carried in makeshift coops on the rear of the turret. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 120 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com