_58th Infantry, Machine-Gun Company_
His company was fighting near Villa Savage. The majority of their
machine guns were destroyed. On the morning of April 7, 1918,
Sergeant Herren went through a deathly artillery bombardment in order
to get more machine guns and ammunition for his company. With his
reinforcements and bravery he enabled the right flank of his company
to advance, and capture a German machine-gun position and repulse
counter-attacks.]
Besides the danger from mines there was the excitement of submarine
shelling of the fleet every now and then. In one attack of that kind
Custance’s trawler struck a mine and sank. After that the Captain was
given a steam yacht, no longer at her best, the _Mingary_, in which
he did patrol work, visited and overhauled neutral ships, and kept a
weather eye out for submarines and mines.
The performance that gained him the D. S. O. was the day after the
Jutland naval fight, when the German fleet had fled, leaving only
the submarines to prowl and finish off the wounded if possible. The
dreadnought _Warspite_ was one of the wounded and poorly protected
by destroyers as she toiled along with deranged steering gear. The
Captain saw three submarines maneuvering against the _Warspite_, and
despite the fact that the chances were all against him in an attempt
to beat off three submarines with his little yacht and its tiny guns
Custance rushed the _Mingary_ pell mell to the rescue, acting with such
suddenness that he took one submarine by surprise and was able to ram
it, got so close that he could use his guns on the next one and sink
it and so thoroughly scared the third one that it submerged instantly
without an offer of fight.
Later the Captain was in command of the _Maid of Honor_ in convoying
colliers across the English Channel by night. There were no lights,
there was no signaling by whistle, there was traffic both ways, troop
ships, darkness everywhere. Skilled navigators were necessary—men of
the merchant ship sort. Out of all his convoys going or coming, only
three ships were torpedoed, only two being lost.
In the final part of the war he crossed and recrossed the Atlantic in
convoy. It was then that the _Justicia_ was torpedoed. “She remained
afloat for twenty-four hours, and Custance would have saved her if a
German had not dived under the ring of patrol boats that surrounded her
and fired a finishing torpedo.”
In getting off the dying _Justicia_ Custance nearly lost his life, yet,
says Mr. Cropley, “I received a very apologetic letter saying he was
sorry he hadn’t been able to save the cigarettes he was bringing over
to me.”