Thirty Canadian V.Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918Roberts, Theodore Goodridge
History
Thirty Canadian V.Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918
Roberts, Theodore Goodridge
Victoria Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada
Combe and his men had entered the German trench after a terrible
struggle, aided by a few men of another company whom they had picked up.
They bombed the Germans along the trench with German bombs, having
exhausted their own long before. Eighty prisoners had been captured and
were on their way back to our lines, and 250 yards of trench were in the
hands of the invaders.
Again and again the gallant little band charged the enemy, Combe always
at their head, leading them around traverses and into dug-outs. Along
the whole of that 250 yards of trench lay dead and dying Germans.
Combe was killed by a rifle bullet as he was leading his gallant bombers
up the trench in the climax of his triumph.
[Illustration]
CAPTAIN WILLIAM AVERY BISHOP, R.F.C. (LATE CANADIAN CAVALRY).
"Give me the aeroplane I want," said Captain W. A. Bishop, "and I'll go
over to Berlin any night--or day--and come back too, with any luck."
It was during a discussion in the mess on the question of air reprisals
that Canada's champion airman slipped in the quiet remark; and when a
man who has won the V.C., the Military Cross and the D.S.O. with a bar,
says he could bomb the German capital it may be taken that he means
what he says. He had then brought down nearly fifty German flyers,
besides a few balloons.
Born at Owen Sound, Ontario, in 1894, a son of the registrar of Grey
County, this stripling received a commission in the Canadian Cavalry in
March, 1915, and went to France with a cavalry unit. He was in the
trenches in the days when our Cavalry Brigade held a section of the line
as infantry. Later, after only one experience of fighting Germans from
horseback, he decided that he wanted more excitement and joined the
increasing host of airmen.
His headquarters in France as a flying man were until recently in the
cosiest of aerodromes, cuddled close up against a small bunch of cool
trees, which looked innocent enough from the air. An ancient farm is in
the vicinity and the title of the young airman's hut was "The Abode of
Love." It is a fitting answer to the Hymn of Hate.
Commanding this squadron of airmen, he brought it to perfection, and
none disputed that he was a fitting successor to Captain Ball, the
famous English V.C. hero, who was the leader until his death. Every man
of the squadron has brought down at least ten Germans and the cheerful
group is reputed to have the greatest percentage of flying nerve on the
western front.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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