Thomas Witham ["Tales of the V.C."], item 5
Transcription
Transcription history
-
Then, as if in answer to the question, a smoke shell burst close
in front of them, and the emplacement was blotted out by an
eddying of smoke.
Before his companions realised what was in
his mind Witham, the private had scrambled out of the shell-
hole and was racing through the smoke toward the ruins.
At the appointed time the barrage lifted, and
the Coldstreamers rose and walked behind it up the bare slope
of Pilkem Ridge. But the machine gun was silent, and no
bullets came out of the ruins to sweep their ranks as they advanced.
Then the men of the leading wave reached the
ruins, they saw in a shell-hole a strange group of four men.
On one side of it, with their hands held stiffly above their
heads, sat two disheveled Germans, one of them an officer, a
look of pained surprise still upon their faces. On the other
sat Private Witham, his finger on the trigger of a revolver
which had until recently been the property of an officer in the
German army. Sprawled uncomfortably at the bottom of the shell-
hole and groaning piteously, lay the third member of the machine
gun's crew. Private Witham's tactics had evidently been
somewhat unorthodox, but they had proved exceedingly effective.
The machine-gun itself, its barrel still warm, had been overturned
in the struggle, and lay on it's [sic] side on the rim of the shell-
hole.
-
Then, as if in answer to the question, a smoke shell burst close
in front of them, and the emplacement was blotted out by an
eddying of smoke.
Before his companions realised what was in
his mind Witham, the private had scrambled out of the shell-
hole and was racing through the smoke toward the ruins.
At the appointed time the barrage lifted, and
the Coldstreamers rose and walked behind it up the bare slope
of Pilkem Ridge. But the machine gun was silent, and no
bullets came out of the ruins to sweep their ranks as they advanced.
-
Then, as if in answer to the question, a smoke shell burst close
in front of them, and the emplacement was blotted out by an
eddying of smoke.
Before his companions realised what was in
his mind Witham, the private had scrambled out of the shell-
hole and was racing through the smoke toward the ruins.
At the appointed time the barrage lifted, and
the Coldstreamers rose and walked behind it up the bare slope
of Pilkem Ridge. But the machine gun was silent, and no
bullets came out of the ruins to sweep their ranks as they advanced.
Then the men of the leading wave reached the
ruins, they saw in a shell-hole a strange group of four men.
On one side of it, with their hands held stiffly above their
heads, sat two disheveled Germans, one of them an officer, a
look of pained surprise still upon their faces. On the other
sat Private Witham, his finger on the trigger of a revolver
which had until recently been the property of an officer in the
German army. Sprawled uncomfortably at the bottom of the shell-
hole and groaning piteously, lay the third member of the machine
gun's crew. Private Witham's tactics had evidently been
somewhat unorthodox, but they had proved exceedingly effective.
The machine-gun itself, its barrel still warm, had been overturned
in the struggle, and lay on it's [sic] side on the rim of the shell-
hole.
Description
Save description- 50.8798343||2.8880638000000545||||1
Pilckem Ridge, near Ypres
Location(s)
Story location Pilckem Ridge, near Ypres
- ID
- 5454 / 60686
- Contributor
- Jeremy Arter
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