GIRL WHO HELD UP ARMY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 282, 8 June 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

GIRL WHO HELD UP ARMY

OPENED CANAL LOCK GATES UNDER FIRE OF GERMANS. Recentlv in the Sorbonne (Paris) at a meeting held to celebrate the heroic deeds of Frenchwomen in the present war. M. Klotz, the Deputy and Chairman of the Budget Commission, paid a warm tribute to a young Frenchwoman present named Marcelle Sommer, who lias been decorated for rare gallantry with the War Cross and the Cross of the Legion of Honor After the battle of Ciiar'croi the French troops tried to hold back the Germans on the Somme, but, being few in numbers, had to retire across the canal at Eclusier.

When they were safely across, this young girl of nineteen, under fire from the enemy, opened the lock and then threw the key into the canal, thus preventing tho Germans from crossing for nearly twenty-four hours, and making tho retreat of the French possible. M. Klotz referred to the action of the British general who later in tlio year occupied Eclusier. To show respect to tho youthful heroine lip ordered his men to salute her when she passed and never to address her unless they were first spoken to.

No. 2037.