AUTHOR Jonathan Walker wants to thank High Wycombe residents for helping him research his book about a historic tank battle in the First World War, which was published last week.

Mr Walker, 44, appealed for information in the Bucks Free Press in 1994. He wanted to know more about Private Basil Gardner, who was killed in the battle of Bullecourt on April 11, 1917, and was thought to be from High Wycombe.

Mr Walker's book, The Blood Tub, was published last week. He has now written to the BFP to thank those who helped him.

He said: "It's taken about five years to complete. I have been researching in the archives all over the country and in Australia.

"Your paper was particularly helpful and I had quite a lot of letters and phone calls as a result of the article."

Private Gardner took part in the first ever large-scale tank attack. His tank successfully breached the famous Hindenburg Line - the previously impregnable German Trench system. But the Germans peppered the tank with 1,200 rounds of amour-piercing bullets.

His tank was one of just two captured by the Germans, ten other Allied tanks were destroyed.

In The Blood Tub, Mr Walker writes: "There was no suspension, so as the tank lurched from one shell hole to another, the crew were tossed against hot exhaust manifolds.

"The heat from the uncased engine was unbearable and the noise was deafening.

"Private Basil Gardner and his fellow gunner in the opposite sponson squinted through the narrow aiming slits, but could make out few targets in the dim light.

"The cab was already filling with carbon monoxide and cordite fumes, which made some of the crew vomit."

Private Gardner was handed a letter the day before they were to leave for the battle, telling him that his father had died.

He went into his last battle with the death of his father in his mind.

Mr Walker, of Sidmouth, Devon, began researching when he found a diary belonging to a man, who was not his grandfather, in his grandmother's possession.

He found that the man, 2nd Lieutenant Harold Davies, was killed in the Battle of Bullecourt and was his grandmother's fianc.

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