My Battlefield tour has a personal touch with both the wide picture but the on the ground soldiers view
The tours visit key sites and museums
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Croatian 369th infantry div. Decimated in Stalingrad
Yep Croatia supplied over 18000
Troops to fight in the German Wehrmacht against the Russians , they were fiercely anti communist.
The strange thing was that their country was part of Yugoslavia who had a massive communist partisan army led by President Tito who were fighting the Wehrmacht.
On the 7th August 1900 Sergeant T Lawrence was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the 2nd Boer War.
He was on patrol with a private near Essenbosch when the two were attacked by twelve or fourteen Boers. The private's horse was shot and he was thrown, dislocating his shoulder.
Sergeant Lawrence at once came to his assistance, extricated him from under his horse, put him on his own horse and sent him back to the picket.
Sergeant Lawrence took the private's carbine and with his own weapon kept the Boers off until the wounded man was out of range. He then returned for some two miles on foot followed by the Boers, and keeping them off until assistance arrived.
Lawrence later served in World War I and World War II and reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 18th Royal Hussars (later 13th/18th Royal Hussars)
He competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics for Great Britain in eventing. He did not finish the Individual eventing (Military) competition, also the British team did not finish the team event.
He died in 1949.
At this years 2024 Chilean army review by its leaders. Below are some pictures as clear examples of their links back to N**i Germany .
These links for want of a better word still exist to this day .
Many German N**is escaped in 1945-46 to South America taking huge fortunes in Looted monies with them.
Oh and in a small town in central Chile which was built to look like a Bavarian village they still have each year a beer festival. Everyone dresses up in traditional Bavarian costumes.
Strange but true.🇬🇧
A strange but true story of the only American to win a Victoria Cross.
In 1864 in Japan a diplomatic war had been going on to secure trade deals with Japan . The old Japanese order were against this foreign intervention into their old ways. Led by the Sh**un , the Emperors public general hostility broke out between the Japanese samurai order and the combined foreign forces who had a considerable naval force and we the British had a force of 8000 troops , made up of the naval brigade, marines and even an Indian army regiment.
In September 1864 the force’s clashed near a fortress outside Yokohama. A British and Dutch fleet landed a British force of 1300 men to attack the fortress and drive off the Japanese samurai garrison. The battle was not all one sided the samurai fought with cannon and old muskets but soon the attackers superior firepower won the day .
During the assault two men were singled out for bravery both were awarded the VC ,
William Seeley was an American citizen and attached to the British Naval Brigade to get experience.
So being the only American to win a VC.🇬🇧
August 4th 1917.
Noel Godfrey Chavasse loses his life.
Noel Godfrey Chavasse was born on 9th November 1884 and baptised at St Peter-le-Bailey. He went to Magdalen College School and Liverpool College. At Liverpool College he excelled at sport, playing first XV Rugby and establishing school records for the 100 yards and quarter-mile.
From the age of 16, he was a regular volunteer at the Grafton Street Industrial School, where he ran a Bible class, attended annual camps and otherwise supported boys from disadvantaged backgrounds. He maintained his connection with the school throughout his life.
He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, in October 1904. There he won a blue for the 100 yards and quarter-mile and played lacrosse for Oxford. He also competed in the Olympic games of 1908.
He gained a First Class degree in the School of Natural Science in 1907. He then studied at the University of Liverpool and Royal Southern Hospital under Sir Robert Jones.
After the outbreak of the Great War, he went to France as a Royal Army Medical Corps doctor attached to the Liverpool Scottish Regiment. There he won the Military Cross at Hooge in May 1915, and the Victoria Cross at Guillemont in August 1916. He was famous for his dedication to the wellbeing of his men and his bravery when rescuing wounded soldiers from no-man's land. He made several innovations in the methods and procedures for the medical care of soldiers, and took progressive steps to help men suffering from the mental pressures of trench warfare. He frequently clashed with his superiors in his attempts to improve military hygiene.
He was seriously wounded by a shell on 2nd August 1917 while attending to wounded men in no-man's land. He subsequently died 100 years ago today and was buried at Brandhoek military cemetery. He was posthumously awarded a second Victoria Cross. He was the only man to receive two VCs in WWI.
First VC Citation published 24th October 1916.
Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, M.C., M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps.
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.
During an attack he tended the wounded in the open all day, under heavy fire, frequently in view of the enemy. During the ensuing night he searched for wounded on the ground in front of the enemy's lines for four hours.
Next day he took one stretcher-bearer to the advanced trenches, and under heavy shell fire carried an urgent case for 500 yards into safety, being wounded in the side by a shell splinter during the journey. The same night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole twenty-five yards from the enemy's trench, buried the bodies of two officers, and collected many identity discs, although fired on by bombs and machine guns.
Altogether he saved the lives of some twenty badly wounded men, besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands. His courage and self-sacrifice, were beyond praise.
Second VC Citation published 14th Setember 1917.
His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of a Bar to the Victoria Cross to Capt. Noel Godfrey Chavasse, V.C., M.C., late R.A.M.C., attd. L'pool R.
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when in action.
Though severely wounded early in the action whilst carrying a wounded soldier to the Dressing Station, Capt. Chavasse refused to leave his post, and for two days not only continued to perform his duties, but in addition went out repeatedly under heavy fire to search for and attend to the wounded who were lying out.
During these searches, although practically without food during this period, worn with fatigue and faint with his wound, he assisted to carry in a number of badly wounded men, over heavy and difficult ground.
By his extraordinary energy and inspiring example, he was instrumental in rescuing many wounded who would have otherwise undoubtedly succumbed under the bad weather conditions.
This devoted and gallant officer subsequently died of his wounds.
Lest We Forget this incredible Soldier.
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Did the US army use a former German Panzer General as their main advisor in strategy against the threat of massive Russian tank forces.
In the late 1960s and through the 1970s until the early 1980s .The US army and NATO knew that the Russians could sweep into Europe with huge tank forces .
So the US reached out to one of the most successful German Panzer generals, little known but was the man behind many battles against vastly superior Russian tank forces
And in most cases winning , in one battle his 7 divisions defeated 45 Russian divisions.
General Balck had served in WW1 and stayed in the Wehrmacht between the wars then at the start of ww2 led panzer armies in France, Italy and Russia.Technically the most gifted battlefield panzer army leader but stayed very much below the radar unlike his fellow generals seeking fame .
He surrendered to the US army in May 1945 was imprisoned by Mail 1947 was wanted by the Russians for war crimes, but was released and lived quietly in west Germany until the US army sought him out to go to the USA to lecture on tank battle tactics.
These tactics are still taught in the US army tank school at Fort Hood Texas to this day.
The face of the Statue of Liberty. Isabella Boyer's life is like an exciting novel. She was born in Paris, the daughter of an African pastry chef and an English mother. Isabella had a special beauty and, at age 20, she married Isaac Singer, the sewing machine maker, who was 50 years old. After Singer's death, Isabella became the richest woman in the country. It is not surprising that she was chosen as the model for the Statue of Liberty, as she embodied the American dream. Widowed, Isabella traveled the world and married the Dutch violinist Victor Robstett, becoming a countess. He became a prominent figure in America and Europe, and met the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi at a world event. Bartholdi, impressed by her beauty and history, used her face as a model for the Statue of Liberty. Isabella married a third time and died in Paris in 1904 at age 62, but her face lives on in the iconic statue in New York, symbolizing freedom and American.🇬🇧
The Jean d'Arc of the North.
Louise Marie Jeanne Henriette de Bettignies
Louise was born in 1880 into an old Walloon noble family.
As a child she lived in Lille but in 1898 she came to England to continue her studies.
She spoke French, English, German and Italian.
When she left school she worked as a tutor for a number of aristocratic families in various countries including Italy and Spain.
She was back in France when the war began and soon found herself trapped in German occupied territory.
She came to the attention of the British intelligence service and agreed to work for them.
She worked under the pseudonym Alice Dubois and helped set up an intelligence network of over one hundred people.
The network provided import information to the British and helped to smuggle British soldiers, who had been trapped behind the German advance in 1914, into the neutral Netherlands.
She was arrested by the Germans on 20th October 1915 near Tournai and sentenced to death.
The sentence was later commuted to forced labour for life.
After being held and ill-treated for three years she died on 27th September 1918 as a result of a botched operation in St. Mary's Hospital, Cologne.
After the war her body was repatriated and she was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.
She was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor, the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with palm, and the British Military Medal. She was also made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Louise de Bettignies was 38 years old.
Basil Hallam (1888 - 1916) and the Knuts with a K,Edwardian comedy theatre.
Basil Hallam Redford was born in Brighton, East Sussex, UK on 3rd April 1888. His parents were Thomas Hindmarsh Radford (1845–1927), a ship and insurance broker, and his wife, Ann Louisa Maria Radford - née Wulff (1847–1924). Educated at the Meads preparatory school in Eastbourne, then Charterhouse School, Basil went on to study at Oxford University, before beginning his acting career with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s company in 1908.
The Knuts came to fame in the review “The Passing Show” which starred Basil as “Gilbert the Filbert”. Knuts - nuts with a K - were Edwardian men-about-town, usually the younger sons of wealthy families. In his Jeeves and Wooster novel “Joy in the Morning”, P.G. Wodehouse described the typical Knut as “humble, kindly, and lovable”.
"The Passing Show" introduced the American actress Elsie Janis to British audiences and opened in London at the Palace Theatre in April 1914. At around that time, Elsie and Basil became secretly engaged and set up home in Liverpool.
Basil had a steel plate in his foot from an injury so he did not volunteer to serve immdiately when war broke out. However, after being given several white feathers, which were often thrust upon him at the stage door of the theatre in which he was working, he decided to enlist. Basil became a Balloon Observer, serving with the rank of Captain with a Kite Balloon Section of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). His duties were to reinforce the work of observers working for Corps Squadrons.
Serving on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme., Basil was killed n the afternoon of 20th August 1916 on the Northern part of the Somme battlefield. He was manning a tethered un-powered observation balloon watching the German line near the village of Gommecourt, when its steel cable tether snapped and the balloon, caught in an Easterly wind, began to drift towards enemy lines out of control. To avoid capture, Hallam bailed out of the balloon's basket but he was obstructed from jumping clear, and fell several hundred feet to his death after his emergency parachute failed to open. Basil was buried in a British military cemetery at the nearby village of Couin.
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Joachim Peiper, "The Blowtorch Battalion" and the Malmedy massacre
SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper (30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976) is commander of one of the units of the 1st SS Division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”.
On 6 May 1943, Peiper was awarded the German Cross in Gold for his achievements in February 1943 around Kharkov, where his unit gained the nickname the "Blowtorch Battalion". Reportedly, the nickname derived from the torching and slaughter of two Soviet villages where their inhabitants were either shot or burned.
He took part in battles in France, the USSR, Romania, Poland. In May 1945, he surrendered to the Allies in Austria. After the war, 84 prisoners of American soldiers were accused of shooting December 17, 1944 during the offensive in the Ardennes, near the town of Malmedy.
Flouting the high command's order to surrender, Col. Peiper trekked home to Germany where American forces captured him on 22 May 1945.
Although personally Joachim Peiper did not participate in the shooting, at the military court, he pleaded guilty for the actions of his subordinates. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was replaced by life imprisonment.
On 16 July 1946, the military tribunal for the Malmedy Massacre Trial convicted Joachim Peiper of the war crimes of which he was accused, and sentenced him to be hanged. In the judicial system of the U.S. Army, a sentence of death is automatically reviewed by the U.S. Army Review Board, and, in October 1947, death-sentence reviewers commuted some verdicts into long imprisonment for N**i war criminals. In 1956 he was released.
Upon release from prison, Peiper worked for the Porsche and Volkswagen automobile companies and later moved to France, where he worked as a freelance translator. Throughout his post-war life, Peiper was very active in the social network of ex-SS men centred upon the right-wing organisation HIAG (Mutual Aid Association of Former Members of the Waffen-SS). In 1976, Peiper died from asphyxiation after communist arsonists discovered his identity and set his house on fire.
But how did he get the job at both Porsche and VW, both were part of an organisation that helped the SS
It was called De Spinner, the spiders web .
Racing driver, suffragette, war hero.
Muriel Annie Thompson MM, Order of Leopold II, Belgium, Croix de Guerre, France.
Muriel was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in June 1875. She was one of eight siblings.
Her father was a wealthy ship owner and marine architect.
She grew up and was educated in London. She attended Blackheath high school and then Hackney College.
She became interested in cars at an early age and was taught to drive the family car.
She was a pioneer for female motor racing and won the first ladies race at the famous Brooklands circuit in July 1908.
She was hired as a chauffeur by the Women’s Social and Political Union.
In 1909 she drove Emmeline Pankhurst, the head of the suffragette movement on her national tour.
Determined to play her part in the war effort in January 1915 she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry to drive ambulances.
She was deployed to Belgium on 8th February 1915.
At that stage of the war the British authorities refused to use the F.A.N.Y and so the corps worked with the Belgian Army.
For her actions evacuating wounded Belgian soldiers under fire near Dixmude she was awarded the chevalier of the order of Leopold II. King Albert of Belgium presented her with the medal on 29th March 1915.
Early in 1916 the British Army changed their stance and began using the F.A.N.Y to help with the evacuation of the wounded.
Muriel was mentioned in dispatches on 9th April 1917.
On 1st January 1918 she was appointed as Commanding Officer of the new joint First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and Voluntary Aid Detachment convoy based at St Omer.
In the spring of 1918 the Germans launched a series of massive offensives. The British army was driven back sustaining heavy casualties. Throughout this period the St Omer convoy worked day and night under heavy bombardment evacuating the wounded.
During the night of 18th / 19th May 1918 a series of air raids caused much damage and inflicted casualties. The women under Muriel’s command performed magnificently, refusing to take shelter and evacuating wounded men as bombs fell close by.
For their actions that night 16 of the St Omer convoy women were awarded the Military Medal, Muriel was one of the.
The citation published in the London Gazette read as follows:-
“For conspicuous devotion to duty during a hostile air raid. All these lady drivers were out with their cars during the raid, picking up and in every way assisting the wounded and injured. They showed great bravery and coolness, and were an example to all ranks”.
She was also awarded to Croix de Guerre by the French for what she did that night.
She returned to London on 2nd September 1918 exhausted after nearly four years of continuous service.
After a few weeks recuperation she joined the Women's Royal Air Force as a recruiting officer.
She never married.
Muriel Thompson died on 3rd March 1939.
The German armored steam locomotive DR #19.1001, also known as the 19 1001, was a unique and innovative express train steam locomotive operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) during World War II. Manufactured by Henschel, this fully streamlined trials locomotive with factory number 25000 was an experimental design featuring a single-axle drive to each axle, a method commonly used in electric locomotives. The locomotive's four driving axles were each driven by a separate steam-driven motor, showcasing innovative technology for its time.
At the end of the war, the locomotive remained in the vicinity of Göttingen and was subsequently transferred to the manufacturer on the orders of the American occupying forces for repair. After the necessary repairs were completed, a short test run was conducted between Kassel and Wabern. Recognizing the locomotive's special nature and innovative technology, the U.S. Army decided to ship the 19 1001 to the United States. The locomotive was then exhibited alongside the class 52 2006 condensing locomotive at Fort Monroe in Virginia, starting in March 1946. Subsequently, the locomotive was used in the U.S. for a number of test runs.
This unique locomotive, the only one of its kind built, played a significant role in the post-war period, serving as a testament to technological innovation and the exchange of knowledge and expertise between nations during a pivotal historical era.
German armored steam locomotive DR #19.1001, with its experimental design and innovative technology, had a remarkable history that extended beyond its wartime service. Its transfer to the United States and subsequent use in test runs underscore its significance as a symbol of technological advancement and international collaboration during the post-war period.
Modern aircraft companies that have have historicall links to the Luftwaffe and the N**is.
At the end of WW2. , May 1945 the Luftwaffe aircraft manufacturing companies were banned from producing military aircraft for 10 years, Messerschmitt, Henkel, Dornier, Focker-Wolff and Daimler.
So how did these companies survive,
By diversifying into small cars , helicopters,sea planes and even prefabricated housing, but all emerging into the 1950s and 1960s as merged companies under different names . Heinkell was granted a license by the USA to build star fighter jets .
Dornier having survived by being in Spain at wars end then Switzerland before restarting in Germany now called Deutsche Aerospace ,
The other old companies merging through the 1970s into Deutsche Aerospace. Merging to disguise there past links to the N**is .
The question is HOW did they do this financially.?
So where are they all now in our modern era .
So again through mergers they are the largest civil aircraft production and design company outside of the USA.
AIRBUS.
Do the next time we take an aircraft trip just remember the links back and
what is the hidden story as to who linked all those old companies together.🇬🇧
U-537 delivered the secret German weather station to Canada in 1943. It was only discovered in 1981. Here the Canadian Coast Guard shore party are making the first examination of the remnants of German Weather Station Kurt on the Hutton Peninsula, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada on 21 July 1981.
The equipment was built by Siemens ,who are still making electrical equipment today.
The U-537 had a torrid journey back to base in Norway after sailing through a huge arctic storm the deck gun was ripped off the deck . The boat then had to sail on the surface all the way home.The weather station equipment was found to be workable its batteries long since died .🇬🇧
English writer J. R. R. Tolkien photographed in military uniform in 1916. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and is widely regarded as one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time. He served as a Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers during the First World War. 🇬🇧
Private Victor Manson Spencer – shot at dawn.
Victor was born in Otautau, South Island, New Zealand in 1896. He was orphaned as a child and brought up by an aunt.
After leaving school he became an apprentice engineer.
Aged 18 he enlisted in the Otago Battalion in April 1915. The official minimum age for recruits in the New Zealand army was 20.
He fought in the Gallipoli campaign before his unit sailed for France in April 1916.
During the night of 9th / 10th July 1916 he was wounded in a bombardment near Armentières.
He returned to his unit after several weeks in hospital and immediately went missing.
He was arrested by the Military Police on 12th August 1916. At his court Martial he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with hard labour.
In June 1917 his sentence was suspended and he was sent back to his unit.
After two months he went missing again.
He was caught on 2nd January 1918 living with a French woman.
This time he was charged with desertion.
At his court martial he stated that “since being wounded my health has not been good and my nerve has been completely destroyed”.
The court did not to call for medical evidence to support his claim and he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
He was shot by firing squad early in the morning of 24th February 1918.
He is buried in Huts Cemetery near Ypres.
Victor was formally pardoned under the provisions of the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act 2000 which was passed by the New Zealand Parliament.
The grounds for the pardon was that the ex*****on was not a fate that Spencer deserved, but was one that resulted from:- (a) the harsh discipline that was believed at the time to be required; and (b) the application of the death penalty for military offences being seen at that time as an essential part of maintaining military discipline.🇬🇧
“Churchill's German Army". The unknown story About the 70,000 Germans that relocated here to England from 1933-1940. Over 10,000 of those served for us during WWII. One of those being Klaus Adam, many will known as Sir Ken Adam. Better known for his time as a Production Designer on James Bond etc. Pilot with No.609 Sqn on Typhoons. The only German born Pilot that served with RAF Fighter Command in WWII. 🇬🇧
Criminals in freedom - the justice of the Allies
Heinz Lammerding, the SS Division Das Reich and the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane (10 June 1944)
"This paradox epitomises the real tragedy of the war in the East. It achieved nothing constructive - not even the orderly application of retributive justice.
Generally speaking, those who had been involved in the East only fared surprisingly well." - Alan Clark
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SS Division Das Reich was an armored division of the Waffen-SS initially served during the Battle of France in 1940 before seeing combat on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1944. It was transferred to the Western Front in 1944, where it fought in the Battle of Normandy.
Das Reich attained significant notoriety for its history of war crimes. The division committed multiple major and minor massacres in USSR, Yugoslavia and France.
Right in France committed the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre on 9 and 10 June 1944.
In the methodical slaughter, SS soldiers commanded by SS-Untersturmführer Adolf Rudolf Reinhold Diekmann (18 December 1914 – 29 June 1944) took the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane in central France by surprise and killed nearly all its inhabitants within a few hours. They killed 642 men, women and children.
On 12 January 1953, a military tribunal in Bordeaux heard the charges against the surviving 65 of the 200 or so SS men who had been involved. Only 21 of them were present, as many were in West and East Germany,
SS-GruppenfĂĽhrer Heinz Lammerding of the Das Reich division, who had given the orders for retaliation against the Resistance, was tried in France for war crimes in 1953, for ordering two massacres in 1944: at Tulle and at Oradour-sur-Glane. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the court of Bordeaux, but he was never extradited from West Germany. He died in his bed in Bavaria in 1971 following a successful entrepreneurial career.
In this photo: SS-GruppenfĂĽhrer Heinz Lammerding
On 10th June 1944, German troops of the Waffen-SS murdered 642 civilians in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, in N**i-occupied France.
In February 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" was sent to France as a reserve unit after having spent two years on the Eastern Front, where it participated in numerous anti-partisan actions that involved the murder of thousands of Soviet civilians. Following the Normandy Landings on 6th June, the unit, commanded by SS-ObergruppenfĂĽhrer Heinz Bernhard Lammerding, was ordered to move north to help stop the Allied advance. In the meantime, the French resistance was intensifying its efforts to disrupt German communications and supply lines, and Lammerding ordered his men to crack down on the partisans.
For some reason which has never been explained, the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane, in Haute-Vienne, was targeted. On 10th June, SS-SturmbannfĂĽhrer Adolf Diekmann, commanding the 1st Battalion, 4th SS-Panzer Grenadier Regiment "Der FĂĽhrer" - a subordinate unit of the 2nd SS Panzer Division - ordered his men to round up all the inhabitants. The men were then taken into barns and shot in the legs, before they were doused with gasoline and set on fire. Women and children were herded into a church that was also set ablaze, while those who tried to escape through the windows were shot. In all, 190 men, 247 women, and 205 children were murdered.
Few of the SS men responsible for the massacre ever stood trial. Many of them, including Diekmann, were killed in subsequent fighting. Others, including Lammerding, could not be extradited due to legal complications. In 1953, 20 former soldiers were found guilty of their involvement by a French military tribunal, which sentenced two of them to death, and the rest to varying prison terms. Amnesties and pardons, however, freed all of the convicts, including the two sentenced to death, within five years of the trial. Another former soldier was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983, but was released in 1997. The most recent trial was held in 2014, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.
In the meantime, while a new village of Oradour-sur-Glane was built not far from the site of the massacre, the ruins of the original village have been left as a memorial to the dead, and to serve as a reminder of N**i atrocities perpetrated against the peoples of the occupied nations.
Message from Rod Stewarts manager confirming that he has paid
£10k to the Royal British Legion as we requested for spending a day with my group and I on the 5th June .🇬🇧
British (Scottish) Lance Corporal William Angus VC posing for a photograph with his Victoria Cross, 1915.
Lance Corporal William Angus from the 8th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry Regiment, earned his Victoria Cross in action today 109 years ago, on June 12, 1915 at Givenchy on the Western Front.
'Willie' Angus was born on February 28, 1888 in Armadale Scotland. Prior to the war he was a professional footballer for Carluke Rovers before signing for Celtic, although he never featured for the first team, and was released in 1914.
When war broke out in August 1914, Angus enlisted immediately for the 8th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry Regiment. Angus left for France on February 17, 1915 and in March 1915 was wounded from a gun shot to the leg on the frontlines of Festubert in Artois, hospitalising him for three weeks, and becoming a Lance Corporal in the process.
On June 12, 1915 at Givenchy in Artois, Angus performed the action which earned him his VC, when he rescued a comrade Lt. James Martin in No Man's Land, who had been wounded by a mine. His citation reads:
"For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Givenchy on the 12th June, 1915, in voluntarily leaving his trench under very heavy bomb an rifle fire, and rescuing a wounded Officer who was lying within a few yards of the enemy's position. Lance-Corporal Angus had no chance whatever in escaping the enemy's fire when undertaking this very gallant action, and in effecting the rescue he sustained about 40 wounds from bombs, some of the being very serious."
Angus travelled 64m in No Man's Land to rescue Lieutenant Martin, and lost his left eye in the process. His commanding officer said there has been no braver deed in the history of the British Army.
However, Angus survived and was hospitalised at Boulogne, during which he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first Scottish Territorial to do al. After 2 months in hospital, Angus went to London where was given his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on August 30, 1915. When the King commented on his 40 injuries, Angus answered "Aye, Sir, but only 13 were serious."
Keithjohnevans@hotmail. Com
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