V.C. DEEDS RE-TOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1930, Page 7

V.C. DEEDS RE-TOLD

A GREAT LEADER AT HILL 70. On the morning of the Battle of Loos Scottish battalions stormed their way with fearful loss through the village towards Hill 70. Colonel Douglas-Ham-iltoil led his Camerons forward to sustain the left of the line. They scraped some cover while the German shrapnel burst low over them. Throughout the cold, wet night the enemy fire never ceased but the Cameron’s colonel moved among them with words of praise and good cheer. Next morning our shells crashed upon Hill 70, shrouding its redoubt in smoke but the scattered parties of Scots were too few in numbers to storm it.

Fresh German infantry advanced in their turn. Unsupported, scourged by heavy fire, the Camerons recoiled—but steadily under the voice and example of their colonel. Soon he led them forward again. In the confusion of the fight, where amid the dead and wounded little groups of men turned to look for leadership. Dougins-Hamilton seemed to tower above them all. He was the rallying point.

To him gathered the surivors of the Camerons and men of other regiments Again and again he led them on until at last the German advance was stayed. Then sank dow. “I’m done.” he gasped. Two of his officers ran to him, thinking he was exhausted, for he was not a young man, and none had done as much as he. But he was badly wounded. Presently he raised! himself w*ith the words. “I must get up. I must get •ip,”- and fell hack dead.

Corporal John Collins, 25th Royal Welsh Fusilqrs. Palestine, October 31, 1917. In the Third Battle of Ghaza on Octtober 31, 1917, our infantry attacked towards Beersheba. They struggled forward over the hot, stony desert ridges, which were swept by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets. Corporal Collins led his section skilfully, taking every advantage of the lie of the ground. At last, under-deadly fire, the advance stopped. Six hundred yards away across a deep gully the Turkish trenches, cut in white limestone, gleamed in the fierce sunlight. Our shells whistled over the heads of the Fusiliers, who lay flat in their endeavour to escape the Turkish shrapnel. A number were hit, and John Ctfl’Kira, moving calmly about, got many a wounded man under cover. At last came the signal to assault. This warrior from Mehyr Tydvil was again the leader of men: one of the first to cross the ravine and breast the opposite slope. He knew how to force a passage through uncut wire. None of the enemy was his match when it came to the cold steel. Fifteen Turks he slew with his bayonet. The battalion shook itself together in the captured position and prepare* for defence. From, out in front came the rattle of a Lewis gun. Corporal Collins had taken a detachment forward into a storm of shell fire in order that the Turkish snipers might be subdued.