On This Day ... in 1915 & Others
In France, Corporal James Upton of the Sherwood Foresters distinguished himself by relentless and selfless efforts to rescue and tend to wounded men during a ferocious artillery barrage.
Nearby, Corporal Charles Sharpe of the Lincolnshire Regiment was sent forward with a bombing party to try to secure a stretch of German trenches. Although most of his section fell casualties in the attack, Sharpe not only cleared the assigned trench, but, with only four men, took the opportunity to press forward and take several hundred yards more of the trench-line.
The Black Watch were involved in an assault on German positions near Rue du Bois. Lance-Corporal Finlay
led a section in a bombing attack on German troops. They inflicted damage with their grenades, but took heavy casualties, ten out of the thirteen men being killed or wounded.
Finlay thereupon sent back the two unwounded men, then followed, carrying an injured man across No Man's Land under heavy fire to seek cover.
Meanwhile, Corporal John Ripley had led his section in an attack through heavy barbed wire entanglements. They took their objective in the first German trench, then pressed on to gain a foothold in the second line of defences. Ripley then led the defence of this position until every member of the section had been killed or injured; the corporal (pictured on the left)
survived a serious head wound and was later promoted Sgt.
All of the Corporals and the Lance-Corporal were awarded the Victoria Cross.
1918: The St George's Day raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend had only proved partially successful in denying the Flanders U-boat flotilla access to the sea. A second attempt to seal off the harbour and canal system was therefore mounted. The much battered old cruiser HMS Vindictive, used as an assault ship at Zeebrugge, was once again used. This time the intention was to sink her as a block ship in Ostend harbour. Accompanying Motor Launches would take off her crew once she was in position. Vindictive was swept with fire as she entered the harbour in fog. Her Commanding Officer was killed, and the First Lieutenant badly wounded. Lieutenant Crutchley took command, but despite best efforts, the ship was sunk short of her target. Although badly wounded, Lieutenant Drummond RNVR brought ML254 alongside Vindictive and took off 40 survivors, including Crutchley. Drummond then managed to take the launch back out to sea before collapsing from his injuries. Crutchley again took over command, and managed to keep the launch afloat until help arrived from the supporting squadron. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Bourke RNVR in ML216 took his launch in a sweep around the harbour looking for any further survivors, all the time under heavy fire. Initially none were found, but as the launch left the area, cries for help were heard. Bourke turned back into the barrage and found three men clinging to an upturned boat. They were picked up, and the badly damaged launch, hit 55 times, limped back out to sea where she was taken in tow. Crutchley, Drummond and Bourke all received the Victoria Cross.
1941: In the North Atlantic, the U-boat U-110 was depth-charged by HMS Aubretia. Forced to the surface, HMS Bulldog chose not to ram her, but instead sent over a boarding party to capture the submarine. The victory marked a double success: the submarine's commander, Lemp, was one of the best known U-boat officers, who had sunk the liner Athenia on the very first day of the war. But more importantly, the U-boat's Enigma cypher machine and code books were captured intact, providing a significant boost to Bletchley Park's efforts to break the specific version of Enigma used to control U-boat deployments. U-110 was taken in tow, but later sank.