The post of honour : $b stories of daring deeds done by men of the British Empire in the Great WarWilson, Richard
History
The post of honour : $b stories of daring deeds done by men of the British Empire in the Great War
Wilson, Richard
World War, 1914-1918 -- Anecdotes
There are numberless stories of Canadian pluck and resource. In one
engagement, Lieutenant Campbell, leading a small number of men, made
his way into the front trench of the Germans, and passed along for
some distance until he was held up by a barricade. They were under
very heavy fire, and in a short time only two of the party were left,
namely, the lieutenant and Private Vincent.
The two men, however, kept on fighting. They had a machine-gun, but
it was useless because they had no tripod to stand it on. So Vincent
stooped down and the officer strapped the gun upon his back. It was
worked with its human tripod for some time, but at last a German
bombing party entered the trench and Campbell was wounded to death.
Vincent, however, succeeded in dragging the gun away to a place of
safety.
Our men were, naturally enough, very anxious to prevent their guns from
falling into the enemy’s hands and being used against themselves. A
British gun, lost near Ypres, was afterwards recovered in a surprising
manner.
One bright morning a German aeroplane was seen circling gracefully over
the headquarters of a British division. Soon the shrapnel was bursting
round it; but the airman flew too high to be hit, and he and his pilot
seemed to the thousands of watchers to be thoroughly enjoying the risks
of their morning flight.
Then a British machine appeared at some distance away, and it was
not observed by the German airmen until it was close upon them. The
enemy turned to escape but the sound of an aerial machine-gun soon
told the watchers that the fight had begun. The German made a spirited
reply, until his gun went wrong and his pilot was wounded. Then his
machine fell rapidly to the ground and came to earth not far from the
Montreal Battalion, while the British machine rose again to avoid the
attentions of the German gunners.
The German airman was able to get clear of the wreckage of his machine
and creeping to the Canadian trench gave himself up, saying that
his pilot was dead. Our men were anxious to capture the machine but
the German gunners were equally anxious to pound it to pieces. The
Canadians, however, were able to gather the fragments of the wreck, and
among them found the machine-gun which had been lost near Ypres some
six months before.[3]
[3] The story is fully told, with many others of great
interest, in _Canada in Flanders_, Part II., by Lord
Beaverbrook. (Hodder and Stoughton.)
It was a French-Canadian officer, Major Roy, who performed one of the
bravest deeds of the early part of the war in Flanders. A huge shell
from a trench-mortar fell into a trench full of men. The gallant major
picked it up to hurl it over the parapet, but his foot slipped and the
shell exploded as he held it! There was little doubt that with men like
these the Canadian spirit would carry the troops of the Dominion very
far, as indeed it did, in the months of terror and glory which were to
follow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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