Palaphy hoisted the injured man upon his shoulders, and under a rain of machine gun bullets carried him safely to the French lines. That same day Palaphy was promoted to be a sergeant.
Shortly afterward, although wounded, he distinguished himself in another affair, leading a charge of his squad against the Baden guard, whose standard he himself captured.
Wounded by a ball which had plowed through the lower part of his stomach and covered with lance thrusts, he was removed from the battlefield during the night, and learned he had been promoted to be a sublieutenant and nominated chevalier in the Legion of Honor.
This incident of decorating a soldier on the battlefield recalls Napoleonic times.
"AFTER YOU," SAID THE FRENCHMAN
Lieutenant de Lupel of the French army is said to have endeared himself to his command by a most unusual exhibition of what they are pleased to term "old-fashioned French gallantry."
Accompanied by a few men, Lieutenant de Lupel succeeded in surrounding a German detachment occupying the station at Mezières. The lieutenant, on searching the premises, came upon the German officer hiding behind a stack of coal. Both men leveled their guns, and for a moment faced each other.
"After you," finally said the Frenchman courteously.
The German fired and missed and Lieutenant de Lupel killed his man.
The French soldiers cheered their leader, and he has been praised everywhere for his action.