Let us begin with a heroine if only to remind ourselves that it was not
only the British who showed the most wonderful heroism on the Western
Front, but the French also, not excluding the French women and girls.
When the British re-took the French town of Loos in the autumn of 1915,
they found a ready helper in a French girl of seventeen years named
Emilienne Moreau, who had lived there during the German occupation.
She shared the work which women did so nobly during the Great War, that
of nursing the wounded. This was done under the most trying conditions,
for the fighting was still going on and all was din and confusion
around her. In spite of the heavy bombardment, some of the people of
Loos had stayed behind in their shattered houses; and one of the first
duties of our troops on entering the town was to carry terrified women
and children into places of cover.
Emilienne Moreau did more than tend the wounded. She took a hand in
the fighting, young as she was. The Germans fought every foot of the
way, but she helped them to go. She killed no less than five of them by
throwing hand grenades and using a revolver. At a later date she was
decorated by a French general with the Military Cross, which might be
described as the V.C. of France.
The fighting in this quarter was marked by the usual deeds of heroism
which one had come to expect from British troops. At one place the
British attacked, but were forced to fall back. They took shelter
behind a parapet, and when they had time to think of what had happened,
Captain Kerr of the R.A.M.C. looked over the top of the barrier and saw
two wounded men lying in the open. The enemy were at close range and
were firing heavily; but Captain Kerr took the hero’s chance, jumped
over the parapet, and brought both the men to a place of safety.
Our men were gassed in this engagement, and some of the most heroic and
desperate fighting was done by soldiers suffering from the effects of
the hideous yellow cloud. The King’s Own Scottish Borderers were shaken
by the gas and seemed to waver in their trenches. Piper Daniel Laidlaw
saw this and at once jumped upon the parapet, careless of his life.
Then he marched up and down, blowing his pipes with great vigour. The
men lifted their heads. The sound of the pipes seemed to rouse them to
fresh efforts. They leapt from the ditch “over the top” and rushed to
the attack as if driven by madness. But a bullet found Piper Laidlaw
and he fell wounded. His work was done, however, and he lived to
receive the Victoria Cross as a reward for his bravery.
Meanwhile, officers and men in every part of the field were “carrying
on” in the most wonderful way. Lieutenant Hollwey’s business was to lay
a telephone wire and to do so under heavy fire. He had not gone far
before he was wounded in the leg. He took little notice of the wound
and went steadily on with his work, until another bullet fractured his
leg. Then he lay down and waited for no less than sixteen hours. Men
were so desperately busy all round him that he refused to be helped
while more important work was to be done.
Sergeant Wells immediately took charge of his platoon when the officer
in command had been killed, and the men followed him to within a short
distance of the German barbed wire. As they ran across the open, many
were killed and wounded, and when Wells was last seen he was shouting
to his men to pull themselves together and rush the German line. The
fire was, however, too severe, and the men were forced to take cover;
but the brave sergeant had done all that man could do and had given his
life as an offering to duty.
The Germans had laid mines under the church tower of Loos and shells
were bursting round it. At any moment the mines might explode and bring
down the masonry upon the heads of our men. So Major Blogg of the Royal
Engineers went forward through the storm of shells, found the fuse and
cut it in two.
Many heroic deeds were done amongst the barbed wire in that battle. At
one place the Royal Warwicks were stopped by an entanglement when they
were near to the first line of German trenches. It was daylight and
the men were in a very exposed place while shells and bullets whistled
round them. Then Private Vickers stood up in his place and coolly cut
the wire in several points so that his comrades were able to force
their way through.
So the “great game” went on until Loos was finally and completely in
British hands, after a brave resistance by our determined foes.