Before we made an attack on "The Mound of Death," St. Eloi, in the
early part of 1916, our Brigadier-General addressed the battalion and
impressed upon us the importance of taking our objective.
He told us the tale of two mice which fell into a basin of milk. The
faint-hearted one gave up and was drowned. The other churned away with
his legs until the milk turned into butter and he could walk away! He
hoped that we would show the same determination in our attack.
We blew up part of the German front line, which had been mined, and
attacked each side of the crater, and took the position, though with
heavy losses.
On the following day one of my platoon fell into the crater, which, of
course, was very muddy. As he plunged about in it he shouted "When I've
churned this ruddy mud into concrete I'm 'opping aht of it."
This was the action in which our gallant chaplain, Captain the Rev.
Noel Mellish, won the V.C.--_"Reg. Bomber," 4th Royal Fusiliers, 3rd
Division._