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
Second Lieutenant C. G. Vickers, 1/7th (Robin Hood) Battery, Sherwood
Foresters.
You will remember that on 13th October a division, consisting of
Territorials from Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Grimsby, and
other North Midland towns, was ordered to assault the Hohenzollern
Redoubt. "It is a story of men attacking machine guns, of rushes across
the open with no spot of cover, of fierce work with bomb and bayonet in
a narrow trench. What flesh and blood could do they did." The Sherwood
Foresters were sent in on the afternoon of the 13th, and bombing
encounters went on all night. When reliefs were arrived at one o'clock
on the morning of the 14th, Lieutenant Vickers was discovered holding a
barrier against fierce German attacks from front and flank. All his men
but two had been killed or wounded, and single-handed he was beating
back the foe while his men built a barrier behind him. At last he was
badly wounded, but not before he had secured the safety of his trench.
Corporal James Lennox Dawson, 187th Company, R.E.
Prior to the war Corporal Dawson was a science master in Hill's Trust
School, Govan. On 13th October, at Hohenzollern Redoubt, we prepared a
gas attack against the enemy. Corporal Dawson, who had already proved
himself a gallant and resourceful leader, discovered that three of our
gas cylinders were leaking, and that many of our own men would soon be
rendered insensible by the fumes. Under a heavy fire he rolled the
cylinders one by one out of the trench, and then returning, lay down and
fired at them with a rifle. The cylinders were broken open, and the gas
escaped towards the enemy. There is no doubt that by his cool gallantry
he saved many men from being gassed. You may be sure that when the hero
visited his old school he was received by his former pupils with
rapturous applause.
Private Thomas Kenny, 13th (Service) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.
On the thick foggy night of 4th November Lieutenant Brown and Private
Kenny went out towards the German lines on patrol. They were sighted by
the enemy, and Lieutenant Brown was shot in both thighs. He begged his
companion to leave him, but Kenny would not do so. He took the wounded
officer on his back, and for more than an hour crawled about under
heavy fire, trying to find his way back. At last, when quite exhausted,
he reached a ditch which he recognized, and, placing the lieutenant in
it, went on alone to look for help. At last he came across a listening
patrol, and with help brought in the wounded man. During the last part
of the journey the Germans fired on him with rifles and machine guns,
and threw bombs at him from a distance of thirty yards.
Private John Caffrey, 2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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