The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10): From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914Parrott, Edward
History
The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10): From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914
Parrott, Edward
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
Don't forget that there is plenty of opportunity for the display of
courage, even behind the firing line. The following little story
illustrates the steadfastness and resource of a man in the Army Ordnance
Corps--that is, the branch of the service which conveys ammunition to
the places where it is needed. Five motor lorries conveying ammunition
had been cut off by the Germans. The men in charge of them blew up the
ammunition and made off across country. One, however, refused to leave,
and remained hidden in a wood near the side of the road. The Germans,
finding the ammunition destroyed, passed on, and the hidden soldier came
out of his hiding-place. Finding the wheels of the lorries intact, he
managed to start one of the motors. He then hitched the other four
lorries behind, and slowly brought the convoy safely into the British
camp.
* * * * *
Major Viscount Dalrymple, of the Scots Guards, the first member of
Parliament to be taken prisoner, gives the following account of his
adventures:--
"We came out in a great hurry in the dark and pouring rain on the night
of 25th October, having heard that a trench held by Major Willie Holbeck
and a platoon on the right flank had been overwhelmed. It was a beastly
trench, next to the one I was in on the previous day, and by nightfall
the Germans were entrenched only 100 yards in front of it. Willie was
shelled and shot at in it all day, and they rushed him in large numbers
in the dark of the evening. He and Corporal Maclean and a few others
bolted back a hundred yards or so, and then tried to retake it with the
bayonet, but failed. Major Hugh Fraser and I, with the remainder of the
right flank and the left flank under Captain Fox, hurried off to the
village, and when we got there we heard that a lot of Germans--more than
1,000--were marching along the street away from us.
"We were not sure whether to try to clear the village first, or whether
to try to retake the lost trench. Eventually Major Fraser and Major
Holbeck started up the track straight to the lost trench. When Fraser
got fairly near the trench he found it full of Germans. He shouted,
'Have a go at them!' and charged practically by himself. He was shot at
once, as were, I think, most of his men. Major Willie Holbeck had his
right thigh bone broken by a bullet. I did not hear much firing, and had
no idea of what had happened until Holbeck crawled back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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