A NAMELESS HERO

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2303, 10 November 1914, Page 7

A NAMELESS HERO

IRISH PRIVATE'S FINE SELF- / ■ SACRIFICE. The following story of an unidentified private of the Royal Irish Regiment who deliberately threw away his life »./ ia order to warn his comrades of an ambush is told by a wounded oorporal of the West: Yorkshire Rogiment in hospital in Woolwich: — "The fight in which I got hit was in - a Uttle village- near to Reims. We were working in touoh with the French.' coips on our left, and early one mom-' ing we: were sent ahead to. this village/ . v/hich we had reason to believe was clear of; the enemy., On the outskirts 1 we questioned a- French lad, but . he; eeerned scared and ran away. We wenton through the long narrow street, and • just; .as we were ;in right, of the'end . the figure of a man dashed out from a farmhouse on the right.' Immediately the rifles .began to crack in front, end the poor; chap fell dead before he .Peached us. "He was one of our men, a private ; of the Royal A lrish Regiment. We, learned that he had been captured the' previous day by a marauding .party of German and had been held a: prisoner at the farm where the Germans were in "ambush for us. He tumbled to their game, and though he knew that if he made the slightest sound they would 1 kill him, he decided to make a dash to warn no of what was in store. . ' He had more than a dozen bullets in him, and there was not the slightest •hope for him. We oarried him into ahouse until the fight i was over, and theai We buried: him next day with military honours. .His identification' diso and everything else was missing, so that We could only put over his grave the tribute that was paid, to a greater: •"He saved others; himself/he oould not, eavo.' There wa'an't a dry eye among Us when we laid him to rest in that little village. . "When the Germans saw their trick had failed they made off, after some i half-hearted shooting. ■ Late the next night, however, they Vcame ' back in strong force, and fought their way into the village, taking advantage of all the cover that was available, in the early morning, when. it was pitch dark, we got orders to advanco along the street for the purpose of clearing them out. We got along as . quietly. as; we could, but ju6t when we had got near to the farm where we had the adventure the previous day, we stumbled on a party of. theiT infantry. They didn't wait for an introduction, but went for us riglit r.wfiy, and we didn't wait long ,\eitlier; Clearing.them.out was tho toughest job Iy e ever been in. They fought like ' madmen, dodging about from one piece of cover to .another, and. shooting at ■US' at qlose range. They fired so close' that it was like having a pistol discharged at your head.; The long, narrow street helped them a. lot, .and we lost heavily. We got them out in the end." ;