The Tank Corps

"Casa" at Flers

Notes by Mike Cooper, County Reference Library, December 1995

The battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15th September 1916 saw the first use of tanks in action. One of these, "Casa" was named after the commander’s home in Elmhurst Road, Reading.

Casa, a Mark I Female tank of No.3 Section, C Company, Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps, was Commanded by 2nd Lieutenant L.V.Smith of the Machine Gun Corps who named the tank after the house in Elmhurst Rd in which he grew up. The house itself was designed by 2/Lt Smith’s father, Charles Stewart Smith, an architect, and first appears in Smith’s Directory for 1903, as number 76 Alexandra Rd, becoming 76 Elmhurst Rd by the 1906 edition.

Victor Smith’s tank was one of nine vehicles of C Company acting in support of 3rd Grenadier Guards and 1st Coldstream Guards in an attack on Bavarian manned trenches to the north easy of Ginchy, as part of the later stages of the Battle of the Somme. Starting out at c.06.20 am on the morning of the 15th Casa advanced over c.1300 metres of open, but badly shelled ground, to a point beyond the German first line trenches. Engine problems forced Smith to turn back at some point probably after 07.00 hrs. The tank returned to British lines to await repairs.

Casa’s crew were 2/Lt L.V.Smith; Corporal D.J.Gardner; Gunners J.A.Whitby; W.Scott; G.A.Gaffrey; J.Webb and A.Greenberg and Private Stewart.

Full details of the action, with a photograph of Casa’s crew, tank specifications and maps are given in:

Pidgeon, Trevor. The Tanks at Flers.... Cobham: Fairmile Books, 1995.

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