Deeds of heroism and bravery : $b The book of heroes and personal daring — John Shaqi
Deeds of heroism and bravery : $b The book of heroes and personal daring
History
Deeds of heroism and bravery : $b The book of heroes and personal daring
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
“I was only fifteen hundred yards from our front line, and the place
taken was on an upward slope, so all was in full sight. At the given
moment, 4.45 p.m. of a lovely summer evening, up they went, ‘over the
top,’ famous Celtic regiments, all together, a long and gallant line.
Bayonets sparkling in the sun, up the slope they go! Behind me our
massed batteries are making one great crashing roar till your temples
throb and throb, and ahead of our men the very earth is heaving and
moving amidst a fog of green and black and yellow and gray smoke.
Now, No Man’s Land, so long a desert, is full of life and death and
joy and misery. White vicious balls of shrapnel puff above; or deadly
black and green ones, and below the great spouts and mushroom columns
of jet-black smoke spring up like fungoid growths here and there.
The shrill rat-tat of machine guns and the pop-pop-pop of rifles can
be heard. On the little figures run and jump, and the bayonets gleam
and sparkle, and the first line disappears into the trench ahead, and
you are left to imagine what follows. Still, No Man’s Land is well
populated. Wave after wave is speeding straight ahead. The ground
is dotted with immovable dots, and others which can crawl. A bright
magnesium star shoots up well ahead, and the batteries lift their
fire without checking. The waves all surge forward and out of sight
at last, and No Man’s Land is left to its misery. Then you see the
stretcher-bearers out there among the great grinding ‘crumps’ and the
shrapnel, calmly picking up their men, and back they come slowly. You
watch one group of five. Four bearers and a mangled something which
is alive. A monster spout and cloud springs up near. They swerve and
crouch for a few seconds and on they come. Another black death entirely
hides them from view, and you wonder. No! Here they come. So slowly and
steadily through the cloud, and you say to yourself: ‘Hurry, hurry; for
God’s sake run!’ But they don’t. They walk slowly and carefully with
their burden, straight and the shortest way. Some win home and some
do not. Other men are carrying others, and some hobble and limp and
stagger by themselves. And all the while the big shells burst and the
shrapnel sprays the ground.
“No Man’s Land is again a desert, dotted with dots of death.”
A GO WITH A TANK
On June 6th he was given orders to lead a tank through battle. He must
have had brave folks at home to write:
[Illustration: _Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._
Sergeant Grady Parrish
_42nd Division, 167th Infantry, Company “G”_
He reorganized his platoon and personally led it in the attack on
Côte de Chatillon. By his daring acts he broke up a heavy enemy
counter-attack on his front, thereby setting to his men an example of
exceptional heroism and devotion to duty.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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