George Peachment ["Tales of the V.C."], item 4

• January 18, 2018 04:49:12 Thomas A. Lingner

  the captain, and began to bandage his head. As he was doing

  so the smoke lifted, and the Germans, who were not more than 

  twenty or thirty yards away, opened fire upon the defenceless pair.

    The remainder of the company had by this time retired to

  their old trenches to reorganise, but Rifleman Bachment preferred to

  stay with his officer, although he must have realised that it

  meant almost certain death. There was a shell-hole, too, quite

  near, but he refused to avail himself of its cover, and, still

  kneeling there in the open in full view of the enemy, went

  on quietly with his work.

    He had not knelt there long when he was struck in the chest by a bomb which

  burst just in front of him. The captain, who had also

  been hit again managed to drag himself and his orderly partly into 

  the shell-hole. He could do nothing for the dying boy

  except try to keep him still with the one arm he could

  still use. Mercifully the end came soon. A minute later

  Peachment was shot in the head and killed instantly.

  He was only 17 years old when he died.

  
  

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