IN THE FIGHTING IN PALESTINE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16154, 7 March 1918, Page 6

IN THE FIGHTING IN PALESTINE.

'BRAVERY OF A C.Y.C. SERGEANT. A New Zealand sergeant in Palestine gives, in a letter to a relative, ibe following account of the incident which resulted in Sergeant Percy McClatchie being awarded the Military Medal. Everybody in the regiment (C. Y.C.), he says, is disappointed that McClatchie did not get the V.C. Ho thus describes the affair:—

"The brigade was away in front of our line reconnoitring the enemy. I'hey had picketed down tiiern for the nigiii. When about dawn, Jaeko came up i.t tli.s charge, en masse, in thousands. Our fellows just had time to get ho lino up and horses fixed up to retire. The Turks came up at the run, tjrnir from tho hip—about five or six thousand of them. Our follows only numbered a hundred or two. However, Mac stayed behind to help a couple of chaps who had lost their heads completely. One he put on his horse and sent safely away 'to be shot five minutes; later through the head). Tim other clung to his stirrup. They had not gor.e far \>hen Mae missed the fellow. Looking back, he saw him flat on the ground, fairly done. Rle wens back and picked'him up and put him on his own horse and ran along side him. Of course, in the meantime, the Turks were right at their 1 eels in hundreds. Mac told roe he cou'd see nvu'hir.e-gun bullets ploughing up the earth .just straight behind theni. and he could see the spray of thoni creeping up closer and closer. T reckon he earned the V.C. if anyone earned one in the war."