How Drummer Bent saved a Wounded Comrade.
(From the picture by S. Begg. By permission of The Illustrated London News.)
Drummer Spencer John Bent, 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. On the night of the 1st-2nd November, near Le Gheir,[115] the officer, sergeant, and section commander of this hero's platoon were struck down, and the unit was without a leader. Drummer Bent at once took command, and with great presence of mind and coolness succeeded in holding the position. He had previously distinguished himself on the 22nd, and again on the 24th October, by bringing up ammunition under a heavy shell and rifle fire. Again, on the 3rd November, he went out and brought into cover several wounded men who were lying exposed in the open. He rescued one of his comrades by hooking his feet under the wounded man's arms and by dragging him in this manner for twenty-five yards to the shelter of a trench.
Captain John Franks Vallentin, 1st South Staffordshire Regiment. On 7th November, at Zillebeke, Captain Vallentin very gallantly led an attack against the Germans, but while doing so was struck down. He struggled to his feet, and tried to press on, but was immediately killed. His men carried the trenches, and this was due in great measure to the confidence with which their captain's repeated acts of bravery and ability had inspired them.
Lieutenant Walter Lorrain Brodie, 2nd Battalion, the Highland Light Infantry. On the night of 11th November Lieutenant Brodie, who was in charge of a machine-gun section, moved up to the trenches near Becelaere[116] to relieve a unit of another regiment. When darkness fell, and the men on guard had been posted, the remainder prepared to take what rest they could. Lieutenant Brodie and several men were occupying a section of the trench which formed an angle with the other sections. All was quiet, when the alarm was given, and the enemy swooped down on the trench and managed to capture a part of it. They then made a rush towards the section in which Lieutenant Brodie was stationed, in the hope of capturing his machine gun. At once the lieutenant led his men against the Germans, and there was a furious fight in the trench, during which he bayoneted several of the enemy. So gallantly did his men second his efforts that eighty Germans were killed and fifty-one taken prisoners. There is no doubt that Lieutenant Brodie, by his prompt and inspiring courage, relieved a very dangerous situation. Subsequently he was promoted captain.
Lieutenant John Henry Stephen Dimmer, 2nd Battalion, the King's Royal Rifle Corps. As a boy Lieutenant Dimmer won a London County Council Scholarship, and was transferred to Rutlish School. Always fond of soldiering, he started a Boys' Brigade at Wimbledon, and brought it to a high state of efficiency. At fifteen he left school, and entered the office of a civil engineer; but the drums called him, and he offered himself as a recruit for the regular army. His inches were, however, against him; so he joined the 7th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles (Militia). In his first year he was promoted sergeant, and soon after was transferred as a private to the regular battalion, which saw service in South Africa. In 1903 he was promoted corporal, and his military sketching received high praise from General Lyttelton and General Ian Hamilton.[117] In 1905 he received another step for his services as scout and signaller in the Mounted Infantry, and in the following year was sent to Belgium and Germany to study army methods. Later on he was employed abroad as an intelligence officer, and in 1908 received a commission as second lieutenant.
Major J. H. S. Dimmer, V.C.
In a letter to his mother Lieutenant Dimmer wrote a brief account of how he won the V.C. on November 12, 1914, at Klein Zillebeke. He says: "Here is how it all happened. On Thursday last, at about one o'clock, we were suddenly attacked by the Prussian Guards. They shelled us unmercifully, and poured in a perfect hail of bullets at a range of about 100 yards. I got my Maxims going, but they smashed one up almost immediately, and then turned all their attention to the gun I was with, and succeeded in smashing that too; but before they completed the job I had been twice wounded, and was finally knocked out with the gun. My face is spattered with pieces of my gun and pieces of shell, and I have a bullet in my face and four small holes in my right shoulder. It made rather a nasty mess of me at first, but now that I am washed and my wounds dressed I look quite right."
Lieutenant Dimmer's commanding officer declared that by holding on to his gun after he had been shot five times, he saved the whole battalion, if not the whole line, on at least three occasions.
I have told you Lieutenant Dimmer's story thus fully because it shows very clearly how a man of grit and ability and devotion can win his way by sheer merit in the British army. In the German army, as you know, only men of a certain social class are appointed as officers. Major Dimmer (to which rank he was subsequently promoted) is only one of thousands who have risen from the ranks to distinction in the service of Britain. The story of his career and of how he won the highest award of valour sets a fine example to all young soldiers.
Bandsman Thomas Edward Rendle, 1st Battalion, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. In time of war bandsmen serve as stretcher-bearers, and their duty is to convey the wounded from the field of battle to the dressing stations and ambulances. How Bandsman Rendle won the Victoria Cross on 20th November, at a village about a mile and a half west of Messines, is best told in the words of an officer of the Cornwalls:—
"Two shells pitched into the trench only about thirty yards from me, and blew ten men to pieces. They also blew down the front part of the trench, and the earth filled up the dug-out part. This was very annoying, as it divided our trench into two parts, and made it impossible to get from one half to the other without running across this open piece of ground, about five or six yards wide. Of course, the Germans realized this at once, and put up a machine gun to cover this space, so that any one who crossed it carried his life very much in his hands.
"Lieutenant Colebrook was shot that afternoon, in that part of the trench which had no communications. He asked for me, so I went along to him. This meant that I had to cross the gap, but luckily they failed to hit me. We decided it was quite impossible to move him until dark, as there was no way of getting him across the gap; so I sat down to chat with him, when suddenly the Germans started again with their shells.
"The first two went over the trench, but the next one pitched just in front and buried me with mud. This I thought was a bit too much, so I said that Colebrook must be got away. I was called away to the other end of the trench for a few minutes. In the meantime Bandsman Rendle, one of the stretcher-bearers, lay on his stomach in the gap under fire, and tried to clear the earth out of the original trench to get a safe path for Lieutenant Colebrook to pass. But another shell came that decided him to risk it. So he took Colebrooke on his back, and wormed his way across the open space on his stomach, getting him to the right half of the trench, where it was all plain sailing, and from which Colebrook was sent back to battalion headquarters."
Naik[118] Darwan Sing Negí, 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles. Less than a month after Sepoy Khudadad won the Victoria Cross, another Indian soldier proved himself so supremely brave that the highest award of valour was given to him. On the night of the 23rd-24th November, near Festubert, the Garhwal Rifles were engaged in retaking trenches and clearing the enemy out of them. Naik Darwan Sing Negí greatly distinguished himself in this work. He was one of the first to push round each successive traverse, and though wounded in two places in the head and also in the arm, he fought on in spite of severe fire from bombs and rifles at the closest range. Great was the naik's delight when his Majesty himself pinned the cross to his breast.
Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass, 34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse. Near Festubert, on 24th November, Lieutenant de Pass entered a German sap[119] and destroyed a traverse in the face of the enemy's bombs. Subsequently he rescued under heavy fire a wounded man who was lying exposed in the open. Unhappily this gallant officer lost his life on the same day in a second attempt to capture the sap, which had been reoccupied by the enemy.
