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
It was now so much harried by the Turkish guns from various quarters,
that it was forced to keep under water as much as possible. At one part
of its journey it was submerged for no less than nine and a half hours.
Then the compass got out of order, and the boat was driven about in
the strong undercurrents of the Straits. Sometimes the men could feel
it grating upon the bottom; then it would be suddenly carried near
the surface and every man held his breath while he waited for a mine
to go off. But passing through all the dangers, the little craft at
last reached “home” in safety, to be given a warm reception by men and
officers of the Allied fleets. Lieutenant Holbrook was awarded the V.C.
for this daring deed, while every other man in the submarine was given
a medal. On the following day the B9 tried to rival the exploit, but
was soon detected and was forced to come back.
In one of the actions against the Turks the _Inflexible_ was hit in the
foremast by a shell. Several of the men in the control station at the
top of this steel tripod mast were badly wounded by the explosion; and
those on the deck began to make preparations for bringing the men who
had been hurt down from the control.
As they looked upward, they saw to their astonishment that one of the
wounded men was already tackling the problem. He had taken on his
shoulders one of his comrades who was more hurt than himself and was
carrying him down the steel ladder attached to one of the legs of the
tripod.
After him came another carrying a second wounded man in a similar
manner, and after a painful and perilous descent both the carriers
reached the deck in safety. It must not be forgotten that the rungs of
the ladder were coated with greasy soot from the smoke of the funnels;
and they were therefore by no means secure resting places for the feet
of wounded men so heavily burdened as these brave rescuers were.
WARNEFORD AND THE ZEPPELIN
One Sunday night in the early part of June 1915, a Zeppelin airship
paid a visit to the East Coast of England. It sailed over a wide area
and bombs were dropped in various places. As a result of this visit
several people were killed and a number were badly hurt.
About twenty-four hours later, a Zeppelin was sighted on the coast of
Belgium by two airmen, one British and the other French. The airship
was chased and the British aviator came up with it between Ghent and
Brussels.
He dropped bombs upon it which caused the gas in the envelope to
explode. The airship was set on fire and fell to the ground and its
crew of about twenty-eight men were killed. It is most probable that
this was the airship which had just paid a visit to England.
The British airman who did this splendid piece of work was Flight
Sub-Lieutenant Warneford of the Royal Naval Air Service and he was only
twenty-four at the time. His machine was a monoplane, and very small
compared with a Zeppelin, as can be seen in the picture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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