The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915Parrott, Edward
History
The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915
Parrott, Edward
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
Captain Charles Calveley Foss, D.S.O., 2nd Battalion, Bedford Regiment.
At Neuve Chapelle Captain Foss turned failure into victory. The enemy
had captured part of our trenches, and our counter-attack, which was
made with one officer and twenty men, failed, all but two of the party
being killed or wounded. Seeing this, Captain Foss with eight men dashed
forward through a fierce fire, and began pelting the enemy with bombs.
So successful was his attack that he recaptured the position, and with
it no less than fifty-two Germans. No words of mine are needed to extol
the splendid bravery of Captain Foss and his gallant little company.
Nine Britons retook a trench from more than fifty Germans!
Lance-Corporal W. D. Fuller, 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
Observing a party of the enemy trying to escape along a communication
trench, Corporal Fuller ran towards them, flinging bombs. The foremost
man was killed, and the remainder, finding no means of escape, held up
their hands and begged for mercy. All alone, Corporal Fuller received
the surrender of fifty Germans! Prior to the war he was a miner of
Mansfield. During a spell of leave in July 1915 he did excellent work as
a recruiter. While he was telling the men of Fishguard, in
Pembrokeshire, that if they were not fit to die they were not fit to
live, some one in the crowd challenged him to enter the cage of two
African lions then on exhibition in the town. At once Fuller threw his
cap into the den, and then followed it. You can imagine the excitement
of the townsfolk as he calmly stood by the lions and stroked their
manes. As a result of this incident many men enlisted.
Lieutenant Cyril Gordon Martin, D.S.O., 56th Field Company, Royal
Engineers.
On 12th March, when in command of a bomb-throwing party of six men,
Lieutenant Martin, a young officer of twenty-four years of age, was
wounded, but nevertheless led his comrades into an enemy's trench and
held off all attempts to recover it for nearly two and a half hours. He
had already distinguished himself, and had won the D.S.O. during the
retreat from Mons by gallantly capturing and holding a German trench
with a platoon of engineers. He was twice wounded on that occasion, and
was invalided home. He had only been back at the front a few days when
he won the V.C. for the exploit described above.
[Illustration: Lieutenant Cyril Martin and his grenade-throwing party in
the enemy's trenches.
(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)
In this drawing Lieutenant Martin is shown seated on the right,
wounded.]
Private Jacob Rivers, 1st Battalion, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Regiment (Sherwood Foresters).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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