THE V.C.'S OF ANZAC
In all records of bravery, and in all chronicles of devoted deeds,
there occur some acts that stand out even against the brilliant
background on which they are set. It was so at Anzac. The immortal
story of the landing is set with such resplendent actions, but in
many cases there was no responsible officer at hand to report the
amazing daring of the Australasians on those first days. Afterwards
it was possible to keep a closer record of individual actions, and
the result was that a number of the men of Anzac received the supreme
award for valour in the British army, the Victoria Cross.
The first of these distinctions fell to a non-commissioned officer of
the 14th Battalion of Australian Infantry, for a remarkable exploit
performed on the night that followed the attempt made by Liman von
Sanders to drive the Anzacs into the sea on May 19. Sergeant Jacka,
then a Lance-Corporal, was the hero of this feat of daring.
On the night of May 19 a body of Turks suddenly delivered so fierce
a bomb attack upon a section of advanced trench held by ten men and
a sergeant of the 14th Battalion that every man in the trench was
either killed or wounded. The Turks followed up this success by
jumping into the trench, and Captain Boyle, who entered this section
of trench by a communication trench, was wounded by a shot fired by
them, but was able to give the alarm.
Jacka immediately jumped from the communication trench up to the
step or bench behind the last traverse of the section of the trench
in which the Turks were, and with fixed bayonet held them at the
traverse, round which they feared to come. Meanwhile Lieutenant
Hamilton, a gallant young officer of the 14th, went to the other
end of the captured trench, and began firing at the Turks with his
revolver. He appears to have accounted for three of them before he
was shot by them through the head.
At his end Jacka, single-handed, kept the Turks at bay. The cry of
officer wanted brought up Lieutenant Crabbe with a platoon, three
men of which, Howard, De Gruchy and another, were all friends and
fellow-townsmen of Jacka. Howard sprang forward, followed by the
other two, but when he put his head round the traverse he fell,
wounded in three places. At this moment Jacka rushed around to the
other end of the trench, and took the Turks in the rear. Five he
killed in succession with rifle shots and two more he caught and
bayoneted as they were trying to escape by climbing out of the trench.
At the same time the party at the other end of the trench advanced
and accounted for four more Turks, thus clearing the trench
effectually.
Jacka has a remarkable record, as he was at the original landing,
and fought through the whole of the Anzac battle. When the final
withdrawal took place he was one among five of the original members
of the 14th still remaining.
No more V.C.'s were awarded until the August fighting, when this
distinction was awarded to a number of the men of Anzac. Foremost
among them was Captain Shout, of the 1st Battalion, who died at
the post of duty after earning deathless glory for himself and the
country that will be for ever proud to number such men among her sons.
On April 27 Lieutenant Alfred John Shout won the Military Cross and
his promotion for conspicuous bravery and ability as a leader. From
that time forward he was a shining example of cheerful courage to
those associated with him. His name crops up in countless letters of
Australian soldiers; his coolness, his audacity and his good cheer
were on the lips of all.
His battalion was the reserve of the 1st Brigade when the Lone Pine
position was taken by assault, and was soon called to take part in
repelling the fierce counter-attacks delivered by the enemy. A
feature of the position was a long communication trench, one end of
which was held by the Turks, while the other led almost directly to
the Brigadier-General's head-quarters.
While General Smythe was standing outside his dug-out on the morning
of August 9, the Turks made a very desperate attack by way of this
trench, coming round the last traverse in full view of the General,
and only separated from him by a barricade breast high. They were
driven back behind this barricade, and then Captain Sass, with three
men, determined to drive them farther back with bombs and rifle
shots. In this he was joined by Captain Shout.
They started together, Captain Sass with his rifle and Captain Shout
with bombs. Captain Shout had a good look round to see the position
and then pushed the barricade down. They went forward two abreast,
Captain Sass shooting and Captain Shout bombing. As Captain Shout's
bombs fell those following could hear the bustle of accoutrements
and scrambling cries round the next corner. They finally reached the
point where it was decided that it would be suitable to build the
last barricade. Captain Shout all the time was laughing and joking
and cheering the men immensely by his example. He resolved to make
a big throw before the final dash. He tried to light three bombs at
once, so that they might be quickly thrown, and the Turks prevented
from hindering the building of the barricade. He ignited all the
three and threw one, then either the second or the third burst as
it was leaving his hand, shattered one hand and most of the other,
destroyed one eye and laid open his cheek, and scored his breast and
leg. Captain Shout was nevertheless conscious and talked cheerfully.
He drank tea and sent a message to his wife. Since the day of his
arrival he had been the heart and soul of his section of the firing
line. His invincible buoyancy and cheerfulness was a great help to
the men. He succumbed to his injuries.
Captain Tubb of the 7th Battalion also won the Victoria Cross in the
defence of Lone Pine, and associated with him were Sergeant William
Dunstan, and Corporal Alexander Stuart Burton of the same battalion,
both of whom were similarly honoured. In the early morning of August
9 Captain Tubb, then a lieutenant, was holding with his company a
section of newly-captured trench of the utmost importance to the
defence of the whole position. A fierce bomb attack was delivered
upon the centre of the trench and maintained for hours with the
utmost fury.
Every man worked like a hero, the officer setting a shining example.
The bombs were fielded as they came over the barricade and returned
before they had time to explode. Dunstan himself returned over
twenty bombs in this fashion, and his work was equalled by Burton
and others. One nameless and devoted soldier, seeing a bomb about to
explode at the feet of Captain Tubb, threw himself upon it and saved
his officer's life at the cost of his own.
Three times the enemy blew in the barricade which separated them from
the brave Anzacs, and as often Captain Tubb led his men forward,
drove them off, and rebuilt the barricade. Once again they came
forward, and in rebuilding the barricade under a perfect hail of
bombs the gallant Burton lost his life. The Captain was wounded in
the head and the arm, but he still cheered his men on, and eventually
the enemy were beaten off.
Sergeant Dunstan, who came from my own native city of Ballarat, is
further the hero of an act of self-denial which it is pleasant to
record. The Mayor of the city, proud of his gallantry, promoted a
testimonial which had already grown to a very substantial sum when
the knowledge of it came to Dunstan. He at once wrote a letter,
couched in terms of modest dignity, refusing to be the recipient of
any testimonial for the mere performance of his duty.
On the preceding night, not far from the spot where these gallant
actions were performed, Lieutenant William John Symons, also of the
7th Battalion, was similarly hard pressed by the Turks. With a
gallant little band of this brave battalion he was holding a section
of the freshly-captured trench somewhat to the right of that held
by Captain Tubb. The enemy came in force, and rained bombs into the
trench. He repelled a number of furious attacks, and early in the
morning was called to a sap-end where six officers in succession had
been killed or wounded, and a portion of the sap retaken by the enemy.
The lieutenant led a charge which resulted in the recapture of the
whole sap, and in the charge he shot two Turks with his revolver.
He then withdrew for fifteen yards and ordered the construction of
a barricade across the sap. His part in this work was to hold up an
iron shield which covered the men at work with the sandbags, while
he was exposed. The enemy succeeded in setting fire to the woodwork
and fascines of the head cover, but Lieutenant Symons put the fire
out, and continued the work of building the barricade. His coolness
and determination finally compelled the enemy to discontinue their
attacks.
Lance-Corporal Leonard Keyzor, of the 1st Battalion, obtained his
V.C. chiefly for his actions in the south-eastern corner of the Lone
Pine, where the situation was so difficult on August 7 that a section
of the outer trench had to be abandoned, and which has not since been
held by ourselves or the Turks, and in personally superintending
the retirement from which the gallant Colonel Scobie was killed.
Keyzor was one of the best bomb-throwers in the Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps. During these fierce attacks he was throwing for
fifty hours almost continuously. He was sent to first one corner of
the trenches and then to another, but mainly to this warm corner,
not only throwing bombs but constantly smothering with his coat or
sandbag the enemy's bombs which had fallen in the trench. He often
threw them back. Finally, when the enemy cut down the time of the
fuses, he caught several bombs in the air like a cricket ball and
threw them back before bursting.
On August 8, at the same place, Private Keyzor bombed the enemy out
of a position, from which a temporary mastery over his own trench had
been obtained, and was again wounded. Although marked for hospital,
he declined to leave, and volunteered to throw bombs for another
company which had lost its bomb-throwers.
Private John Hamilton, of the 1st Battalion, won his V.C. on August
9, also at the Lone Pine. About daybreak, when the Turks were
beginning to creep up the communication trenches to attack the
captured trenches with bombs, Hamilton climbed up on to the top of
the parapet and waited there in the open overlooking the trench
up which the enemy came, and making a little position behind the
sandbags, told the officer below whenever the Turks were coming up
to attack. Several other men were up beside him a portion of the
time, doing the same, but Hamilton stayed up there, under the open
sky and entirely unprotected from shrapnel or snipers, five or six
hours, shooting the approaching Turks and passing down the word of
their advance.
Corporal Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett, New Zealand Divisional Signal
Company, received the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and
devotion to duty on the Chunuk Bair ridge in the Gallipoli Peninsula
on August 7.
After the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had attacked and established
itself on the ridge, Corporal Bassett, in full daylight and under a
continuous and heavy fire, succeeded in laying a telephone line from
the old position to the new one on Chunuk Bair. He has subsequently
been brought to notice for further excellent and most gallant work.
The last V.C. awarded at Anzac was that won by the gallantry
displayed at Hill 60 on August 29 and 30 by Lieutenant Hugo Vivian
Hope Throssell of the 10th Australian Light Horse. Lieutenant
Throssell was second in command to Captain Fry, who led a charge to
retake a section of trench captured from the enemy and retaken by
them. The section of trench was successfully stormed and the enemy
driven out. A barricade was then built, and the Turks returned and
delivered a fierce bomb attack, in the course of which Captain Fry
was killed.
Lieutenant Throssell then took charge, and with Sergeant Ferrier,
Corporal McNee and Private McMahon maintained a resolute defence of
the barricade. The Turks repeatedly renewed their attacks, which
Throssell and his men withstood, returning the bombs that were thrown
and replying energetically in kind. With them was associated Private
Renton, who like his comrades did excellent work in fielding and
returning bombs.
The attacks were continued all the night of the 29th and through
the morning of the 30th. Ferrier sustained a wound from which he
subsequently died, and Renton was so badly wounded that his leg has
since had to be amputated. Lieutenant Throssell was himself twice
wounded, but he continued a vigorous defence of the trench until he
was relieved. He then had his wounds dressed, and returned to the
position to see that all was right there.
The holding of that section of the trench meant the subsequent
capture of the hill itself. By his personal courage and example
Lieutenant Throssell kept up the spirits of his party, and was
largely instrumental in saving the situation at a critical period.
During the course of the war at least three other Australians,
attached to the British army, have been awarded the V.C. for deeds
of great courage. Foremost among these is the well-known airman,
Captain Lance George Hawker, of the Royal Engineers and Flying Corps,
who was decorated with the V.C. and D.S.O. He was awarded the D.S.O.
for a bomb-dropping exploit, and the V.C. for an extraordinarily
valiant fight against three German aeroplanes on July 25. The first
managed to escape, the second was badly damaged and compelled to
descend, while the third, which was assailed at a height of 10,000
feet, was not only badly damaged, but was driven to ground in the
British lines, both the pilot and the observer being killed. The
personal bravery shown by the young officer was exceptional, as each
of the enemy aeroplanes carried machines-guns, a pilot and observer.
Corporal William Cosgrove, of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Munster
Fusiliers, is an Australian, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for
displaying most conspicuous bravery in the leading of his section
with great dash during the attack from the beach to the east of Cape
Helles, on the Turkish position on April 26, 1915.
Corporal Cosgrove, on this occasion, pulled down the posts of the
enemy's high wire entanglements single-handed, notwithstanding
a terrific fire from both the front and flank, thereby greatly
contributing to the successful clearing of the heights.
The latest case is that of Lieutenant Dartnell, of the Regiment of
Frontiersmen, who lost his life and won the V.C. at the same time,
by a singularly devoted action in East Africa. Himself wounded,
Lieutenant Dartnell returned to a body of wounded men to endeavour
to save them from the advancing black troops of the enemy. His dead
body was found surrounded by a number of the enemy whom he had slain,
showing that he had sold his life dearly when it came to the last.
Lieutenant Dartnell was a well-known actor in Australia and a great
public favourite. He is said to be the first actor who has been
awarded the supreme honour for valour.
SAID AN AUSTRALIAN OFFICER