A V.C. HERO.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1915, Page 3

A V.C. HERO.

j : ' : in-: ca'xkd jys iiiixtii:. J liy Cable—Press Assoulatioii—Copyright. London. Jiilv 2!». An ofiicer at headquarters of the Indian A'liny t'( )r p S describes the circilmstaic.es under which Lieutenant Smvtli, of tin' l.">th •Ludhiana Sikhs, gained'the Yield ia C.-oss. Jt was necessary to send a bombing party from the reserve trenches to the front line with two bo:;es of bomlbs. They had to cross il« raids of absolutely open ground, The only possible shelter from frightful fire wa- a, broken-down trench, which a.t the Ibest of times was hardly knee deep and was now in some places IMlcd almost to the tap with dead. The party wriggled through the mud pulling the bows until they reached the old trench. Thov attached ■puggarees t 0 the fronts of the boxes and pulled them through tlie deail (bodies. All the party was lying flat, and the whole' ground was hissing with a deluge of rifle, and machine-gun fire.. Four Sepoys were wounded in the first eighty yards, leaving seven, who crawled' on', till just before the end of the trench only Smvtli and the Sepoy Lai Singh were left. Two others had been killed and three wounded. They were compelled to abandon tile second box. Pulling and hauling in the open they met an increased blast of fire and were soon confronted by a small stream too deep to wade. fhev crawled, in frill view of the enemy, till they came to fordablc .point.' ' and struggled across with their burden, and. hi a few yards, reached our trench. P.otii were, untouched, though their clothes were perforated with" bullets. Shortly afterwards Lai Singh was killed in the trench.