Near Cambrai one dark night the British took the offensive against the
Germans, who were holding a bridge spanning the canal. When our men
reached an embankment running sharply down to the river several failed
to secure a foothold and fell into the water. Four of the men, who were
unable to swim, were in imminent danger of drowning, when Corporal
Brindall, an excellent swimmer, plunged into the river and rescued
all four in turn. He was clambering up the embankment himself, when
a German shell exploded near him, killing him instantly: _Drummer H.
Savage, 1st Batt. Royal Berks_.
A Yorkshire “Tyke”
One night in the trenches a man of the West Yorkshire Regiment took
off his coat and wrapped it around a wounded chum who had to lie there
until the ambulance took him away. All that night the game “tyke” stood
in the trenches in his shirt-sleeves, with water up to his waist, and
the temperature near to freezing-point, quietly returning the German
fire. In the morning he would only own to “a bit of a chill that a
cup of tea and a smoke would soon put right,” but I wasn’t surprised
to learn that he had to be sent down to the base with pneumonia that
afternoon. I hope he will pull through: _A Sergeant of the Liverpool
Regiment_.
The Other Man!
After one of our hard fights in the Aisne, there was occasion to let
the wounded lie out in the rain all night. I came on one man of the
Royal Irish Fusiliers who was done for. He had a waterproof cloak over
him, but near by was a man of the artillery without any covering at
all. I asked the Irishman if I could do anything for him. “Nothing,”
he said; “but if you would take this cloak and throw it over that poor
chap there I would be so grateful. I will never pull through, but he
may if he is attended to at once. Good-bye. See that the vultures don’t
get me when I’m gone, will you?”: _A Private from the Aisne_.