Told in gallant deeds : $b A child's history of the warLowndes, Marie Belloc
History
Told in gallant deeds : $b A child's history of the war
Lowndes, Marie Belloc
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
Boys, as we know, have played a splendid part in the war. One of the
bravest French lads, whose name I am sorry I cannot tell you, saved the
town in which he lived from total destruction, and from French shells.
It was at Montmirail, where the German Headquarters Staff was for a few
brief hours installed in the château of the Duc de la Rochefoucauld.
When the first French shell burst, the Germans did not wait for a
second; they quickly cleared out. But of this retreat the French could
not know anything, so they went on firing. It was then that a brave lad,
in order to save the castle, took his bicycle and rode out with the
shells shrieking above his head to inform the battery that the enemy had
fled.
Surprise was felt in our country when it was heard that quite young
German boys were in the firing line, but in the great American Civil War
there were lads as young as thirteen and fourteen, fighting. One of
them, called John Rhea, performed an act of extraordinary bravery during
the retreat from Fishing Creek. He recognised in a prostrate figure on
the ground an old school friend, named Sam Cox. Although he knew that he
faced almost certain death by trying to help the wounded lad, he bent
down, managed somehow to get him on his back, and carried him into
safety.
Here let me break off to tell you that German boys have not been
backward in helping their beloved country.
At the end of August, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, who is thirteen years
old, placed himself at the head of a corps of schoolboys, who not only
helped to get in the harvest, but did other useful work.
One of the most remarkable dogs in the world is a French dog. His name
is Tom (a very favourite name for a dog in France), and he has been
trained to help the wounded by carrying their caps to the Ambulance
Corps. He never touches a dead man.
A certain French soldier was struck by a fragment of shell in the arm.
With a bullet in his jaw as well, and a sabre cut over the head, the
wounded man was lying terribly alone amid a little heap of his fallen
comrades, when he felt a light touch on his forehead. It was Tom.
The soldier knew that the dog was trained to carry to the camp the cap
of every wounded man he found, but alas! the soldier had lost his. “Run
along, Tom. Go and find my comrades. Get along and find them!” Tom
understood. He dashed away to the camp, ran about among the men, pulling
at their capes and barking, and succeeded in drawing two ambulance men
to the spot where the wounded man was lying.
I think the story of French pluck which has touched me most was that of
Denise Cartier, the little girl who was so terribly injured in one of
the German bomb attacks on Paris. The first words which Denise said to
the policeman who lifted her up after the explosion were, “Surtout ne
dites pas à maman que c’est grave.” (“Above all, don’t tell mother that
it’s serious.”)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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