"The first trenches I was in were only thirty-five yards from the
Huns. We caught a squad of them working in the rear of their trench.
We soon downed them, but the others spotted us, and rattled at us for
forty-eight hours. We dared not show our heads above the trench, but I
was acting as guide, and one night I turned out to look for a N.C.O.
who had been sent with a message and had failed to return. He had had
to go through two woods in the dark, and I made sure he had lost his
way. I took the turn he would have done had he gone wrong, and after
going about two thousand yards I stepped through a gap in the hedge and
got a nice little shock.
"Lying on the ground about a yard from me were three Huns with
helmets, rifles, and full kit! I whipped my rifle from my shoulder and
butt-ended it, meaning to make a good fight for it. I noticed they did
not move, so I stepped closer in, and saw the frost on their packs.
Then I knew they were dead.
"My first thought was souvenirs. I got in between the dead men, and was
going to begin collecting, when a star-shell went up, and I soon found
I had landed between our own lines and the Germans. They spotted me,
opened rapid fire, and sent up light after light. I flung myself into
a ditch and waited about ten minutes. I don't know how I escaped being
hit, for the bullets struck all around me. All thought of souvenirs had
gone out of my head. When they ceased I made a sprint for it. I did
'even time' that night, and was mighty glad when I found the missing
N.C.O.
"At another place we had a very rough time of it. Hell seemed to be
let loose, for shells were dropping into our trenches, mortars blew
the bags down, we were under rapid fire from the German trenches, and
to cap the game they had mined the trench and tried to blow it up, but
they had gone too deep, and only one or two of our lads were buried,
and were safely dug out again."
Side by side on the table Private Jones placed his V.C. and a
silver-edged German Cross of the "second degree," one the very
embodiment of modest worth, the other blatantly arrogant.
"And yet," said "Todger," looking upon the two emblems, and then
turning his eyes upon a large official photograph of himself and
his flock of a hundred and two Huns, and anon taking in at a glance
a gold watch, a silver teapot, an illuminated address, and other
public tributes to his valour--"and yet, next to the V.C., I think
more of that Iron Cross than of all the rest, and God knows how much I
appreciate all that my fellow-townsmen have done for me.
"But it's quite another story," he protested, when asked for an
explanation. "I won that Cross in a single-handed joust with a company
commander of the First Prussian Guards. And I don't think the poor chap
had ever had the chance to wear it! But he had to go, for there was
only him and me for it, and I didn't see why Jones should be turned
down.
"The fact is, it was the last scrap I was in before I won the V.C., and
it was there that I got wounded in the shoulder. I don't think there's
any harm in telling you it was at Guillemont--Mouquet Farm and the
stronghold around. The Germans had beaten back all attempts to take it
from them. Division after division had tried to wrest it from them and
had failed.
"Then they brought up our division, and once again we were told that
we had been called out to do what others had failed to do. It was a
terrific struggle, and we were repulsed four times. Our company had to
take the lead at the fifth charge. The bombers won through and leaped
into the trench.
"We knocked the machine-gunners over and helped the following waves to
get through with little loss. It was a terrible journey--the worst, I
believe, that I have been through.
"Yes, I'm coming to the Iron Cross by degrees. I had a wild three
minutes, a rare good do. We got rid of those about us, and I rushed
into the next traverse and met my man, a fine big chap, full of fight,
a commander of the swell crowd, the First Prussian Guards.
"He made for me with bayonet, but I knew too many tricks even for a
Prussian Guard, and I soon settled him. The Iron Cross, in its little
case, fell from his inside-pocket as he dropped. It's new; I suppose
he'd just received it from the Kaiser. Poor beggar! I'll never forget
him when I look upon the Cross I won from him in fair fight.
"We were then reinforced, and advanced another three thousand yards
past Guillemont and dug in, being too exhausted to go any farther. We
stayed there until relieved in the early morning, when we went into
support about six hundred yards behind, and the shelling was very
heavy. It was here I got wounded. It happened in this way.
"A party was lost, and I told them I would take them down for a drink,
as they had been without food and water for over sixty hours. I got
them to the place they had to stay at, got the water, and was making
back when one of the big shells plumped alongside me and lifted me
about ten yards, a piece getting me in the right shoulder and leg.
"I refused to go down the line, and though my arm was useless for a day
or two, and was a bit stiff and painful when I won the V.C., it was all
a streak of luck, for if I'd gone to hospital I should have missed the
funniest round-up I've ever seen."