On This Day ... in 1916 & Others
Efforts to relieve Townshend's force trapped at Kut in Mesopotamia led to an action amidst ruins at El Orah
Lance-Naik Lala of the 41st Dogras Infantry rescued two wounded officers lying only yards from the enemy positions, and not only dressed their wounds but covered them with his own clothing to keep them warm until he was able to carry them to safety during the night.
His Victoria Cross citation reads:
His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on No. 501 Lance Naik Lala, 41st Dogras, Indian Army, for most conspicuous bravery.
Finding a British officer of another regiment lying close to the enemy, he dragged him into a temporary shelter, which he himself had made, and in which he had already bandaged four wounded men.
After bandaging his wounds he heard calls from the Adjutant of his own regiment who was lying in the open severely wounded. The enemy were not more than one hundred yards distant, and it seemed certain death to go out in that direction, but Lance Naik Lala insisted on going out to his Adjutant, and offered to crawl back with him on his back at once. When this was not permitted, he stripped off his own clothing to keep the wounded officer warmer, and stayed with him till just before dark, when he returned to the shelter.
After dark he carried the first wounded officer back to the main trenches, and then, returning with a stretcher, carried back his Adjutant. He set a magnificent example of courage and devotion to his officers
Captain John Sinton, a medical officer, also distinguished himself in the care of the wounded, despite himself being shot in both arms and the body, winning the Victoria Cross.
His citation reads:
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. Although shot through both arms and through the side, he refused to go to hospital, and remained as long as daylight lasted, attending to his duties under very heavy fire. In three previous actions Captain Sinton displayed the utmost bravery
He later achieved the rank of Brigadier (1943), was awarded the Russian Order of St George and Mentioned in Dispatches six times. In 1921 he transferred from the military to the civil branch of the Indian Medical Service which he continued to serve with until 1936.
1920: British forces in Somaliland launched the Combined Forces operation that finally broke the power of the so-called Mad Mullah - Mohammed bin Abdullah Hassan. The Army provided men from the Somaliland Camel Corps, the King's African Rifles and the 101st Grenadiers of the Indian Army; the Royal Navy contributed five ships including the seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal; and the Royal Air Force provided a flight of DH9 bombers
The campaign opened with an air raid on the Mullah's headquarters at Medishe, where a bomb came within a few feet of killing him.
1940: HMS Exmouth, a destroyer, was sunk by a U-boat in the Moray Firth, with the loss of 189 men.
1941: The 6th (Australian) Division began its attack on Tobruk on Libya. The port city was well fortified strongpoint, defended by 25,000 Italian troops
1969: USCGC Point Banks while on patrol south of Cam Rahn Bay received a call for help from a 9-man ARVN detachment trapped by two Vietcong platoons.
Petty Officers Willis Goff and Larry Villareal took a 14-foot Boston whaler ashore to rescue the ARVN troops. In the face of heavy automatic weapons fire, all 9 men were evacuated in two trips. For their actions Goff and Villareal were each awarded the Silver Star for their actions. The citation reads
The nine men would have met almost certain death or capture without the assistance of the two Coast Guardsmen.
Comments
Gotta love the Coasties. Takes a special kind of brave to go into harm's way to save lives.
Does Britain still have a Lifeboat Service/Coast Guard?
Posted by: Larry Anderson | January 21, 2009 2:25 PM
Larry, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution flourishes, and when I pass one of their collecting points - usually an old WW2 sea mine - I drop in a pound or two.
The Coastguard exists. I don't know much about it, except to see their distinctive choppers occasionally, just the ticket for ferrying injured Western Islanders to hospital.
At one point the Lifeboats thought they needed government money, but I understand they got into trouble for not being able to prove they rescued the requisite proportions of minorities, one-legged lesbians and so on, so they went back to relying on the generosity of the public.
A fine body, the Lifeboats, mostly volunteers.
Posted by: Jeff Wood | January 22, 2009 10:17 PM
A few technical points:
1) USCG vessels under 100 feet in length are assigned hull numbers with the first two digits being their length, so the Point Banks was an 82 footer, part of a large series of eighty coastal patrol boats. They operated in Vietnam as part of Operation Market Time, inderdicting VC infiltration by water and were painted either Haze Grey or Olive Drab instead of the traditional white.
67 tons, 1600 SHP, 20 knots, 1 X 20mm (later replaced by 81 mm mortar/50 cal MG dual mount as shown), 3 X 7.62 mm machine guns
2) Technically, HMS Exmouth was a destroyer leader - essentially an enlarged tin can designed to serve as the flagship for the Captain (D) and his staff of a destoyer flotilla of eight other vessels. The interwar RN's DL's were named after distinguished sailors.
Exmouth 1505 tons, 340 feet long, 38000 SHP, 36 knots, 5800 miles range @ 15 knots, 5 X 4.7 inch guns, 2 X quad .5 AA MG mounts, 8 X 21 inch torpedo tubes
E Class 1405 tons, 329 feet long, 36000 SHP, 35.5 knots, 5500 miles range @ 15 knots, 4 X 4.7 inch guns, 1 X 3 inch AA, 2 X quad .5 AA MG mounts, 8 X 21 inch torpedo tubes
COL Beausaber (Lord Exmouth was born Edward Pellew and was Hornblower's skipper in HMS Indetatigable)
Posted by: Beausaber | January 21, 2010 1:09 AM