On This Day ... in 1901 & Others
An Australian officer, Lieutenant Leslie Cecil Maygar of the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles, saw that an outpost was in danger of being outflanked by Boer troops, and galloped forward to order them to withdraw. As the men withdrew under heavy fire, one of their horses was shot, and its rider fell. Maygar went to his aid, and pulled him up behind his saddle, but his horse then bolted onto boggy ground. It being clear that the horse could not carry both of them on that ground, and the pair still coming under continual fire, Maygar gave up his horse to the other soldier, ordering him to gallop for cover as fast as possible, then made his own way back to safety on foot. Maygar was the sixth and last Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Boer War. His V.C. was presented by Lord Kitchener but before returning home in March 1902 he was also mentioned in dispatches.
Resuming work as a grazier at Euroa, Maygar also served as a lieutenant in the 8th (later 16th) Light Horse, V.M.R., and was promoted captain in 1905. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force soon after World War I broke out, on 20 August 1914 was appointed a captain in the 4th Light Horse Regiment and sailed for Egypt in October. On Gallipoli, with the dismounted light horse, he was promoted major. On 17 October 1915 he was given temporary command of the 8th L.H.R., both rank of lieutenant-colonel and command being confirmed in December. During the evacuation of Gallipoli Maygar, left in command of forty men, was instructed to hold the trenches, at all costs, till 2.30 a.m. He wrote: 'I had my usual good luck to be given command of the last party to pull out of the trenches, the post of honour for the 3rd L.H. Brigade'.
Maygar led his regiment throughout its service in Sinai and Palestine until his death and was a much-admired leader. During the 2nd battle of Gaza, on 19 April 1917, the 8th was in a most exposed sector and suffering heavy casualties. Maygar rode about the battlefield all day on his grey charger and 'in every crisis stirred the spirit of his regiment by his example in the firing line'. Sir Henry Gullett records that Maygar was 'always very bold in his personal leadership' and writes of 19 April: 'It was a day when true leaders recognised that their men needed inspiration, and Maygar gave it in the finest manner'. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in June 1917, and was thrice mentioned in dispatches in 1916-18. When Brigadier General J. R. Royston was invalided home, Colonel Maygar acted as brigadier general in command of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
Late on the day of the battle of Beersheba, 31 October 1917, a German aeroplane, using bombs and machine-guns, hit Maygar whose arm was shattered. The grey bolted into the darkness and was found later by 8th Regiment troopers but Maygar was not with him. 'He was picked up during the night by other troops … and, having lost too much blood, died the next day at Karm'. L. C. Maygar, 'Elsie' as he was affectionately known, was 'a true fighting commander'.
1914: At Festubert in France, the 1st Battalion of the 39th Garhwal Rifles conducted a night attack to retake some lost trenches. Naik Darwan Sing Negi particularly distinguished himself, taking on the most dangerous task of being the first man to push around each corner in the trench system. Greeted all too often by rifle fire and grenades, he received serious head and arm wounds, but persisted in his task until the operation was complete. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.
1915: A four man patrol from the Rifle Brigade was detected by the Germans close to their trenches, and came under heavy fire which wounded the officer leading the patrol and another man. The injured rifleman was safely carried back to the British lines by one of the other two soldiers, but the officer's injuries required greater attention. Corporal Drake stayed behind with him and bandaged his wounds. Much later, a rescue party finally located the shell crater where the two men were sheltering. The officer was alive, with his wounds properly bandaged, but Drake had been killed. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
1916: An epic dogfight was fought between Major Lanoe Hawker VC, at the time Britain's leading fighter pilot, and a rising German ace, Leutnant Manfred von Richthofen. Hawker, flying a DH2 aircraft, was eventually forced to break and run for home due to low fuel, and was shot down and killed by von Richthofen just short of the British lines.
1939: The German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau attempted to break out into the Atlantic to raid convoys. In the Iceland-Faeroes Gap, they encountered the armed merchant cruiser, HMS Rawalpindi. Commanded by Captain Kennedy, she was a P&O merchant ship converted for patrol duties. Although only armed with 6" guns, she nevertheless attacked the Scharnhorst. Although inevitably sunk, Rawalpindi inflicted damage on the battlecruiser which forced her and Gneisenau to retire to port.
1941: At Tobruk, Captain Gardner of the Royal Tank Regiment led a sortie by two tanks to rescue a pair of armoured cars which had been knocked out on patrol. Whilst the other tank gave covering fire, Gardner dismounted and connected a tow rope to one of the armoured cars. He then lifted into it an officer from the patrol who had lost both his legs. However, when his tank attempted to tow the car back, the tow rope parted. Still under fire, Gardner once more dismounted, rescued the wounded officer from the vehicle and carried him to one of the tanks. The tanks then retreated back to the British lines safely, despite a heavy barrage of fire. Gardner was awarded the Victoria Cross.
1944: Australian troops relieved American forces at Cape Torokina, Bougainville. The Australian arrival opened the campaign on Bougainville that cost over 500 Australian lives by the war's end.
Comments
The 5th VMR is an Army Reserve unit today and Maygar Barracks is a former stores depot on the northern side of Victoria's capital city, Melbourne.
Posted by: CB | November 26, 2006 8:36 AM
Beersheba was the occasion of the six kilometer charge by the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade - one of history's last great cavalry charges. Watch the film "The Lighthorsemen" for a fictional teatment.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093416/
Col Beausaber (an old cavalryman - although we mounted light armored vehicles and copters not equines - who's swaggering a bit after reading about Lt Col Maygar)
Posted by: Beausaber | November 23, 2009 11:33 AM