A DARING EXPLOIT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVIII, Issue 288, 14 May 1915, Page 7

A DARING EXPLOIT.

TWO WELSH "HEROES. dash through: shot and shell, FORTY GERMANS CAI'TUTIM). Picture two men in kliaki rushing out from the, security of a house against a hurricane of sliot and shell, directed from a German trench not more than a score of j-anls away. Shots are fired from two rillet by these two daring and reckless figures, who have, to the astonishment of forty of the enemy, fought their way by sheer pluck to the very top of the trench. ■As a result of the shots there are just a few less Germans left to tell the tale.,The two men in khaki make an unceremonious entry into the trench,' jumping from the top, and at the same time shout "Surrender!" 11l obedience to this command rifles mt< thrown down, and, with the arrival of a mere handful of British soldiers — not more than a dozen—the occupants, are taken prisoners, and the. trench lias, been raptured. . Tllis briefly sums up the phicky conduct of Corporal W. Thomas, of Cardiff, 1 which has gained him the Distinguished Conduct Modal, and also of Kecom!-l,i":i--toiiiirst 0. E. H. Jaincs, a Newcastlc-on- | Tyne officer, who was awarded the .Military 'Cross, Roth of these herooi are in the '2nd Welsh Regiment. ■Corporal Thomas, who is at present home on the wounded list, was persuaded to describe tile incident. ; "It was 011 January 23." he stated; ; "that the Germans started she'dimj us at Givcnchy at abo.ut seven o'clock hi the morning. We were in billets at the time, and had orders- to go ahead. Lieutenant James and myself had a platoon betwi en us. and lie said to me, 'We had better take it) men each with us.' lie took this number of men across (he brickfields, and I followed about -00 wards behind with mv score. The eaeniv was shelling us so heavily that I was unable, to take the route across the fields, nnd we had to go round the roadway. The Germans turned a maxim gun on us, but eveiltnnlly we got near to them. We found that they had broken through the A Company's trench. "We next went into tile village and concealed ourselves in some houses, from which the Germans were escaping as we got there. These bouses were only about

j 20 ya'vls from the trench that the Germans had taken. They were firing at the houses, and we were sending shots back/ '"Well. Thomas,' Lieutenant James Hiiid to me, 'we had better charge the trench.' We got round the corner of the house and decided to make a dash for it. Most of our men had got scattered, and there were only about ten men left with us at this place. As Lieutenant James and mvself dashed forward Trom flic 11 0' v... bullets were flying all round us, but somehow we managed to dodge them. I "'We did not wait for our men, but Lieutenant James and mvself dashed ] ahead as hard as we could. As soon 1 as we got- to the top of the. trench we Hred our rifles and killed two or three of the occupants. We did not think' there were many Germans in the trench, and were surprised to find -10 of them there. 'We did not hesitate, however, but jumped down amongst the?n and shouted 'Surrender!' This was a complete surprise for them, especially to ■ find only two of us, but, possibly, they I thought we were backed irp by a large number of men. They threw down their rifles and pave themselves up, and by this time the rest of our section, about ten or a dozen, had come up. "They were very surprised, and some of them looked a little disgusted, that we were only a handful of men alto- | pother, but we did not waste time, and ■ soon brought up further reinforcements, : and took them prisoners, marching them ■ lip to our headquarters. We occupied ' the trench with our reinforcements. The ' enemv sheMed it that night diul nil next. • day, but we held it successfully,"