How Corporal John William Windell, Of The 2^nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment, Won The D.C.M. Near Neuve Chapelle

   On a misty morning towards the end of October 1914, when our Second Corps, under Sir Horace Smith Dorrien, in the La Bassee district, was struggling heroically to maintain its ground against vastly superior numbers, the 2^nd South Lancashire’s, one of the battalion s of the 7^th Brigade, were holding a line of trenches a little to the east of Neuve Chapelle, which village had been captured by our men a few days before.  The ground on their front was undulating meadowland, dotted here and there with farms and cottages, and on their left flank, about fifty yards in advance of the trenches, was a tobacco-plantation.  About 9.30 a.m., just as Corporal John Windell, of the South Lancashires machine gun section, was engaged in mounting a gun in the roof of a farm house, standing in a road about four hundred yards behind our first line trenches, the news came that under cover of a mist a strong force of the enemy had crept through the tobacco plantation and surprised and captured the adjoining trench.  In order to escape being enfiladed, our line for some distance on the right of the captured trench was obliged to fall back to the road on which the farmhouse stood, and an officer told Windell that a Maxim had been left in a house just in advance of the abandoned trenches.  It was, of course, of great importance that this gun should not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Germans, who would naturally turn it upon our troops, while, on the other hand, if two or three of our men could get back to the house and work the gun, severe loss might be occasioned the enemy, and possibly any further advance on their part held up until reinforcements could arrive.  Accompanied by the officer and a private, Windell left the farm and ran across the four hundred yards to open ground, which lay between him and the abandoned Maxim.  The ground which they had to traverse was being very heavily shelled, and huge holes yawned on every side, and they passed on their was a dead officer and several dead men, who had been killed by shellfire during the retirement.  They reached the house in safety, and the first sight, which met their eyes as they entered, was the lifeless body of the machine gun sergeant of their battalion propped up against the wall just inside the door.  Hastening up to the roof, where the Maxim was mounted, they saw that a number of Germans had already dug themselves in about two hundred and fifty yards on their right front, while further away a considerable body of the enemy were advancing in massed formation, with the evident intention of occupying our abandoned trenches.  The gun was at once trained upon the latter, and with deadly effect; but presently a hail of bullets began to sing past their ears or patter against the roof, and, glancing in the direction from which the leaden shower was coming, they sae that it proceeded from a house about five hundred yards away, where a machine gun was mounted.  They accordingly turned their Maxim against this new target, and a duel ensued between the two weapons of destruction, which in a few minutes ended in the German one being entirely silenced, the men working it having no doubt been all placed hors de combat.  The victory was, however, achieved only just in time, for the German infantry, whom their fire had momentarily thrown into disorder, had now rallied and were coming on again.  Once more the Maxim began to spit death amongst the advancing hordes, mowing them down in their serried ranks like corn and completely crumpling up the advance, which recoiled in disorder.  On this occasion, they were not under the necessity of giving them time to rally, and they continued to pour a stream of bullets into the discomfited Huns until reinforcements arrived, and the abandoned trenches were reoccupied, by which time they had emptied twelve boxes of ammunition.  Meanwhile our artillery had begun to shell the trench, which the enemy had captured with lyddite, with the result that the Huns were speedily driven out, and the whole line was once more in our possession.  On the other hand, the German guns had begun to direct their attention to the house from which Windell and his comrades had done such splendid work, and it was soon being heavily shelled.  Windell was, therefore reluctantly obliged to leave the gun, and make his way across the open to Headquarters, to report that the house could not be held.  After half an hour or so the fire adapted, upon which, accompanied by another man, he went back to the house, and finding that, though the building had been terribly knocked about, the Maxim had sustained no damage, succeeded in getting it safely away. Corporal-now sergeant-Windell was awarded a well-earned Distinguished Conduct Medal for the gallantry and ability, which he had displayed in this occasion.  Although belonging to a Lancashire regiment, he is a Londoner, his home being at Hackney.  He it twenty-five years of age.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'

How Drummer Spencer John Bent, Of The 1^st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, Won The V.C. Near Le Gheir

     On the night of November 1^st-2^nd 1914, a platoon of the 1^st East Lancashire’s, one of the battalions of the 11^th Brigade, posted on the left of our 3^rd Corps, was holding one of the first line trenches near Le Gheir, which on the previous day the 4^th Division had taken over from the right flank of the 1^st Cavalry Division.  Drummer Spencer John Bent, who had been having a particularly strenuous time of it of late, had gone to a dug out to get some sleep.  Scarcely, however, had he dozed off than he was awakened by the sound of men hurrying up and down the trench, and, starting up, discovered that his comrades were abandoning it.  There was no officer in the trench, and the platoon sergeant having to visit an advance post, someone had passed the word down the line that the battalion was to retire, and the men were obeying what they believed to be their orders.  Bent started to follow them; but, remembering that he had left behind him a French trumpet, which he had picked up and carried about with him for some time, he decided to risk the chance of a bullet rather than lose it, and went back to fetch it.  When he got into the trench, he caught sight of a man crawling towards him round the corner of a traverse.  Thinking that he was a German, he waited until he had come close up to him, and then, holding his rifle to his head, demanded who he was.  He found that he was his platoon sergeant, who told him that no orders to retire had been given.  Bent at once jumped out of the trench, and ran after his comrades to call them back.  While thus engaged, an officer came up, and, on learning what had happened, told him to fetch some of the men back while he went after others.  Eventually, they brought them all safely back and awaited developments.

              In early morning, the German artillery shelled them for a few minutes, after which the infantry, evidently under the pleasing illusion that the trench had been abandoned, and that they had only to walk in and take possession, advanced in mass formation, doing the goose step.  Our men reserved the fire, and meantime a machine gun was brought up and placed in position.  When the unsuspecting Huns were about four hundred yards off, machine gun and rifle fire was poured into them, mowing them down in heaps, and speedily changing their stately goose step into an undignified scramble for cover.  But very soon afterwards the East Lancashire’s found themselves exposed to a heavy and continuous bombardment from every description of gun; and the officer, the platoon sergeant and a number of men were struck down.  Drummer Bent thereupon took command of the platoon, and with great courage, coolness and presence of mind, succeeded in holding the position and in repelling more than one attack by the enemy, until he was relieved later in the day.  Bent’s gallant conduct on this occasion was preceded and followed by several other acts of conspicuous bravery.  On October 22^nd, he carried ammunition to a patrol that had been cut off by the enemy.  Two days later, he brought up food and ammunition to a first line trench, under a very heavy shell and rifle fire; while on November 3^rd he brought in several wounded men who were lying exposed in the open.  One of these men, Private McNulty, he rescued in a singular manner, though it would appear to have been one which this resourceful young hero had employed with success on other occasions.  McNulty had fallen some thirty yards from the British trench, and, in attempting to lift the wounded man on his back, Bent slipped and fell.  While lying on the ground, several bullets whistling just over him warned him that to rise again would be to court almost certain death.  And so, instead of getting up, he adroitly hooked his feet under McNulty’s armpits, and working his way backward with his hands, dragged him to our trench, where he left the wounded man in charge of a comrade and went off to fetch a surgeon to attend to him.  Drummer, now Sergeant, Bent’s consistently heroic conduct was rightly judged to be worthy of the very highest recognition and the Victoria Cross was duly awarded to him.  He is twenty-three years of age, and his home is at Ipswitch.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'   

The East Lancashire Regiment

   The east Lancashire Regiment-Regimental District 30-is composed the 30^th and the 59^th Regiments.  The former of these (the 30^th) was originally raised as a marine regiment in 1702.  The first colonel was Colonel Thomas Sanderson, who had gained great renown in the Low Countries.  The regiment served as marines till 1814, during which period “they appear to have been with Rooke, at the capture of Gibraltar in 1704, and in the subsequent great sea-fight of Malaga.  They went with Sir Cloudesley Shovel and Lord Peterborough to Spain the year after, and serve at the capture and at the following defence of Barcelona.  Afterwards they were at Alicant and Tortosa, and signalised themselves by a gallant but unsuccessful defence of Lerida in 1707.  They were with General Wills at Cagliari in 1708; and detachments of the regiment were employed in the expedition to Nova Scotia and at the occupation of Dunkirk.  Detachments afloat saw much service in the Channel, the West Indies, and elsewhere.”

           After the peace of Utretch they became a regiment in the regular army, being placed on the Irish establishment.  During the siege of Gibraltar in 1727-28 they were engaged as foot soldiers, but a few years later we find them again serving as marines in Lord Anson’s fleet, and as such sharing in the glorious of the naval victory off Finisterre.  The regiment then served for a time in America on returning from which they subsequently again did duty as marines in the operations at Minorca and Malta.  In Egypt, under Abercromby, we find the 30^th-then called the Cambridgeshire Regiment-figuring as a purely land force.  They were brigaded with the Royal Irish, the 44^th,m and 89^th Regiments, and earned with their comrades the eloquent distinction of “Egypt, with the Sphinx.”  Shortly after landing, in the brilliant affair of the 13^th of March, they lost an officer, Ensign Rogers, while Captain Douglas was amongst those wounded.  At the battle in which their gallant general received his death wound, the 30^th had two officers and twenty-four men wounded and four men killed, and at the siege of Alexandria, on the 17^th of August, they had twenty-seven of all ranks killed and wounded.  A second battalion, which was raised a few years later, served in the peninsular campaign, and in the famous battle of Waterloo, where they suffered severely.  So heavy were the losses of the regiment after Salamanca that they were ordered away to recruit, their place in the Sixth Division being taken by the present 2^nd battalion, the 59^th.  At Waterloo the 30^th were brigaded with the 33^rd, 69^th, and 73^rd Regiments, in Count Alten’s Division.  It is related-as showing the decimation, which the gallant regiment suffered-that a one time “the Duke sent Colonel Gordon to Sir Colin Halkett to ask what square of his that was which was so far in advance?  It was simply a mass of the killed and wounded men of the 30^th and 73^rd Regiments, which his grace had mistaken for a square.”  The 1^st battalion found scope for its energies in the Pindaree War, which followed.  At the siege of Asurghur they shared with the Royal Scots the chief honours of the day.  Then, after a long period of useful but uneventful service, they joined the British Army in the Crimea, and won “Alma,” “Inkerman,” and “Sevastopol” for their colours.  They were in the second division under the renowned Sir de Lacy Evans, and at the Alma were on the right of the British line.

           At Inkerman Lieutenant Mark Walker, 30th Regiment performed a gallant act.  “During a critical moment of the first period of the battle, Colonel Mauleverer, with two hundred and two men of the 30^th regiment, found himself about to be attacked by some fifteen hundred Russian infantry in two battalions-one broken up into company columns, the other in support in battalion columns.  Mauleverer’s men, formed in line, tried to open fire, but their rifles, having been during the night exposed to the damp, would not go off.  On this the men seemed disposed to waver, but Mauleverer checked the impulse, and instead of retreating advanced to the barrier, a short wall of loose stones from three and a half to four feet high.  There they lay down for a few moments, when perceiving that the enemy were already within a few yards they resolved to charge.  Springing on to the wall, Mauleverer, Walker, and all the other officers, jumped down on the farther side, regardless of the storm of shot by which they were received, and without looking back to see if they were supported dashed at the enemy.  Their men followed them promptly, and with a joyful hurrah sprang forward with the bayonet.  Many officers and men fell, but nothing could check the onset of the brave little band; and the Russians recoiled in disorder, hotly pursued for some distance by the eager and shouting British soldiers.  For the conspicuous bravery which he displayed on this occasion, Mauleverer recommended Walker for the Victoria Cross, which was duly bestowed on him.” At the Redan, under Brigadier Warren, they particularly distinguished themselves, and were terribly cut up.  After the Crimea they were ordered to Canada, in which country and in India they have been since employed.

           The 2^nd battalion of the East Lancashire consists of the old 59^th Regiment, which dates from 1755, when it was numbered the 61^st.  The first service of the regiment was in the American War, during which they were present at Bunker’s Hill.  They took part in the famous defence of Gibraltar, and after that in the continental battles of Nimeguen, Bremen, and St. Vincent, and the rest of the desultory fighting in which our troops were engaged.  They shared in the expedition under Sir David Baird in 1806 against the Cape of Good Hope, and there gained the first distinction on their colours.  Their next duty was in India during the troubles times of 1806-7, from whence they were despatched to join the troops charged with the capture of the Isle of France, and the following year won “Java” as an addition to their roll of honours by their participation in the capture of that island, which at the time was considered to be “a second India.” The 2^nd battalion, which was raised in view of the threatened French hostilities, had a short and stormy creditable career.  Throughout the Peninsular campaign they were employed, though it did not fall to their fortune to share in all of the more memorable actions.  Yet they “fought under Moore at Corunna, and at Vittoria, at the siege of San Sebastian, at the battles on the Nive and the investment of Bayonne.”  They were not actually at Waterloo, being, with three other regiments, stationed at Halle.  After the capitulation of Cambray the 2^nd battalion of the 59^th remained for a few months in Paris, and, returning to England at the close of the year, came to a premature end, as a distinct regiment, by an untoward occurrence the following January.  While proceeding to Dover the transport in which the bulk of the battalion were was wrecked, only four officers and twenty-five men escaping; thee, with a few survivors from another ship, were “transferred to the 1^st battalion, and thus the 2^nd battalion came to an end.”  The 1^st battalion was busily engaged in the Maharatta was of 1817 to 1819, and a few years later added “Bhurtpore” to the list of the regiment’s honours.  The 59^th was ordered to lead the assault, directly the tremendous mine, which had been prepared, had facilitated the operations.  The result of the explosion was not altogether satisfactory, but the 59^th carried out the glorious task perfectly, though considerable havoc was made in the ranks by the “volleys of round shot, grape, and musketry which were fired down upon them.”  They were stationed in China during the time of the Indian Mutiny, and performed most valuable service at the conquest of Canton and the subsequent operations, at which they were the chief representatives of the British Army under General Straubenzel.  A period of unimportant service at home and in the colonies followed, till 1878, when the Afghan War furnished an opportunity for the regiment to again distinguish itself. In October 1879, the 59^th found themselves in fierce combat with the fierce and warlike Ghilzais.  The enemy had concentrated a force, which subsequent information has proved to exceed three thousand men, at a place near Shahjui.  It was determined to take advantage of things brought by a friendly native and affects a surprise.  The force to which this is entrusted was placed under command of Colonel Kennedy, and consisted of a couple of guns, ninety men or thereabouts of the 59^th, and a hundred Belooches.  Under the guidance of the native they came within sight of the enemy’s piquet fire. “Colonel Kennedy then ordered up a party of the 59^th and another of the Belooches in support.  He pointed out the fire, and directed that, without the slightest noise, they should steal forward, surprise, and take or destroy the piquet.

           “Captain Sartorious was in charge of the surprise party.  He silently led the way down the hill and reached the bottom, and with ever-increasing caution gradually drew near the fire, always directing his party to take advantage of the cover of tree-trunk and brushwood to hide their advance.  The distance of thirty yards or so from the blazing sticks which formed the fire was reached; Captain Sartorious looked around for a moment, and saw by the dim light of the fire that his men, having crept from bush to bush, were now well about them.  Another step and the blaze would expose them all.  A solitary Ghilzai was pacing slowly to and fro in front of the fire; his companions lay about, their arms by their side.  With a loud a cry the captain sprang forward.  His men swiftly followed him. “In a moment Captain Sartorious was seen.  A bullet from the Afghan sentry’s rifle whizzed by the captain’s ear.  The report aroused the sleeping men, who sprang to their feet; but the British was amongst them.” The effect of this was to give the alarm, and before long the Ghilizais threatened the slender British force in formidable numbers.  A sharp cavalry combat ensued, and then once more came work, desperate, but therefore congenial, for the brave 59^th. “Colonel Kennedy directed Captain Sartorius, with his company of the 59^th British Regiment, to assault and take the earthwork at the foot of the steep mound.  A loud English ‘hurrah!’ and direct at the place this officer led his men.  Within a few moments they were over the work, and the Ghilzais were streaming out of it around the back of the hill and over the countryside towards the nearest villages. “But there still remained the men who had taken possession of the castellated work at the extreme top of the mound.  These were, by the slow nature of their rifle fire, not many-at most seven or eight.  They could not, however, be left there to shoot upon and kill as they chose the soldiers who had taken the earthwork below.

           “Again, therefore, Captain Sartorious was requested by Colonel Kennedy to capture an enemy’s post, and this time the tower above him.  The gallant officer cheerfully undertook the task; yet, as he did so, he knew that he had taken upon himself a desperate duty, for the party in the building were now surrounded and would die fighting to the death.  He was almost certain that his own life, and perhaps nearly the whole of those who would accompany him, would be sacrificed in the attempt; still he never shrank from his order, neither did the men selected to help him.  He took with him fifteen men, and then coolly commenced his serious service. “The rock up which he began to toil was almost perpendicular on all its sides.  So difficult of access was the building at the top that three rough zigzag narrow paths had been cut out of the surface of the mound towards it.  Up, therefore, the path nearest to the earthwork, Captain Saratorious, with the skill and sure-Footedness of a practised mountaineer, climbed his perilous way.  His men in the earthwork below tried to keep down the fire of the desperate Ghilzais at the top, by a rapid discharge from their Martini rifles. “The slow progress of the Captain and his men was watched by the whole force beneath, which now looked on in admiration at the example of cool courage, never to be outdone, which was displayed before their eyes.

           “Captain Saratorious, under a rapid fire from above, and a yard or two on front of the nearest man of the 59^th, at last gained the final turn of the zigzag path.  His men were toiling up in his footsteps.  He had scarcely rounded the corner of the path close to the building when seven Ghilzais, with cries like wild beats, rushed furiously down upon him and those who followed.  Swords, sharp as razors, were instantly slashing right and left amongst the English soldiers.  For a few minutes, what appeared to be an indiscriminate melee took place upon the narrow path; then, to the astonishment of all the onlookers, there came rolling over and over, like huge stones shot down the sides of the precipitous rock, the bodies of the whole of its defenders, dead!  But accompanied by another having on a red uniform.  This was the body of a fine young English soldier, a private of the 59^th, whose skull had been cleft through by the sword of his adversary, almost at the same moment as the Afghan himself had received his death wound by the soldier’s bayonet thrust.   “Captain Sartorius was severely wounded by having both his hands slashed across, and two of his brave followers of the 59^th were also seriously injured by cuts from swords wielded by the desperate Ghilzais. “But the silent bayonet had done its deadly work; not a shot had been aimed by Captain Sartorious or his gallant party, for they had not time to fire. “Captain Sartorius recovered from his wounds, and regained the use of his hands.  He was recommended-and justly so-for the Victoria Cross.  He received it, and he deserved it, for an act of valour which was fine example to the men who witnessed it.”  At Ahmad Khel, under Sir Donald Stewart, the 59^th were again hotly engaged.  The ferocious Ghazni Horse charged full at the infantry, to be received by the regiments (of which the 59^th were the only British) with a fire so withering as to entirely demoralize the enemy’s cavalry.  “Most fearful was the effect of this sudden and concentrated fire.  In the wildest confusion-rising, sinking, kicking, plunging, and rolling over each other went the Afghan cavalry,” and amongst the wounded of that invincible phalanx of infantry were Lieutenant-Colonel Lawson and Lieutenant Watson of the 59^th.  It will be conceded that no regiment that bears “Afghanistan, 1879-80” on its colours, more gallantly earned the distinction than did the 59^th, whose latest active service of importance it commemorates.  Extracted from 'Her Majesty’s Armies'