| JerryBB |
06-08-21 03:42 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerryBB
(Post 556259)
On 16 May 1915 at Festubert, France, Company Sergeant-Major Barter, when in the first line of German trenches, called for volunteers to enable him to extend our line, and with the eight men who responded, he attacked the German position with bombs, capturing three German officers, 102 men and 500 yards of their trenches. He subsequently found and cut 11 of the enemy's mine leads situated about 20 yards apart.
He was a Cardiff boy as well, my home town
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and Fuller from the welsh regiment
Fuller was 30 years old, and a lance corporal in the 2nd Battalion, Welsh Regiment, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
On 14 September 1914 near Chivy-sur-Aisne, France, Fuller advanced under very heavy enemy rifle and machine-gun fire to extract an officer who was mortally wounded, and carried him back to cover. Fuller won his Victoria Cross for saving Captain Mark Haggard, nephew of Rider Haggard, who had fallen wounded. He carried him a distance estimated at 100 yards to a ridge where he managed to dress the officer's wounds. Captain Haggard asked Fuller to fetch his rifle from where he had fallen, because he did not want the enemy to get it. Fuller managed to do so.
With the help of two others, Private Snooks and Lieutenant Melvin, Officer in charge of the machine-gun section of the Welsh Regiment, they managed to get Haggard to the safety of a barn that was being used as a first-aid dressing station. Fuller remained with Haggard trying to help him until the officer died later on that evening, his last words being "Stick it, Welch." Fuller attended to two other officers who had also been brought to the barn wounded (Lieutenant The Honorable Fitzroy Somerset and Lieutenant Richards). The barn came under heavy fire, and the wounded men and officers were evacuated. Afterwards, the barn was razed to the ground via German shell-fire.
On 29 October, Fuller was wounded while dressing the wounds of Private Tagg; shrapnel entered his right side, twelve inches in up to his shoulder blade and came to rest on his right lung. Fuller was sent to Swansea Hospital were they operated, removing the shrapnel. Fuller was given a home posting after his recovery, as a successful recruiting sergeant in Wales. |
