YOUNG MAN WHO HELD A FORT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 99, 22 October 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

YOUNG MAN WHO HELD A FORT.

HERO OF 'lO TO 1" FIGHT IN CAMEROON'S.

With reference to the affair in the Cameroons in which three Englishmen and a handful of natives routed a greatly superior German force, the fuller circumstances are told in an interesting letter from Mr. Fitzpatrick, the political officer, who was in the fight, to the father of Lieutenant Derek Pawle, who commanded the British force, and who fell in the engagement. The letter, which is dated May 1, savs:—•

"Your son Derrek and T were attacked in the 1 ttle fort here at dawn, the day before ye-tcrday. We had a British N.C.O. and nome forty native soldiers and peine. The enemy came on. some 300 soldiers, 16 Europeans, and four maxim ;;uns. We had a good idea they were coming, and your son, who was officer commanding the troops, could have withdrawn this little force and retreated.

"No thought of the kind suggested itself to him. He opened fire on the enemy at once, and we had a heavy action from 0 a.m. til! noon, the enemy using three of his guns continually and making repeated attempts to get bis infantry up to the assault. Soon after noon he stopped tiring and at 4.30 p.m. drew off altogether.

"Your son was shot through the head very soon after the start of the action. He dropped ax once, and did not suffer at all. When he was kilted he was in the act of getting the men to fire at the right range, going from loophole to loophole, constantly, in the bravest possible manner. , He smoked a cigarette all the time and set a gre;u example of courage to us a'l. "He was a dear fellow, with whom 1 have been very closely associated for the h<st s'x months. 1 buried him in the fort in the afternoon— we could not go outside —the enemy had a gun trained on the gate and a lot of people less than SOO yards away. I said the •Our Father,' and 'Hail Mary,' and 'Gloria.' and the psa'ni 'De Profundi-;.' I took off his rin-_r and his stars from his shoulder-strap-, and lis whistle, and 1 shall send them to you."