NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

THE VICTORIA CROSS

FIRST ARMY AWARDS THIS WAR AND THE LAST The award of the first two Victoria Crosses won by the Army in this war and the feats for which they were given draw attention to the high quality of courage which is demanded before this most coveted of all decorations is bestowed upon a fighting man. Most-prized Decoration. The deeds of Captain Ervine-An-drews and Lance-Corporal Nicholls were of a kind which was almost impossible in the fighting of. the last century because the weapons employed then were not so deadly or of so high a rate of fire. But they are in the tradition of World War heroism. The Victoria Cross, a simple bronze Maltese Cross, is, as all the world knows, the most-prized decoration which can be bestowed by the British Crown. In the wearing of decorations it takes precedence even of that most exclusive of Orders, the Garter. The Cross was established at the close of the Crimean War for recognition of conspicuous acts of bravery by soldiers or sailors in the presence of the enemy. It was originally designed primarily for the rank and file and for non-commis-sioned officers, a little-known fact, but it is held by all ranks, including FieldMarshals and Admirals of the Fleet, and it was even extended to-civilians who bore arms against the Indian mutineers. World War Awards. r More awards of the Victoria Cross were made during the World War than in the 58 years before that struggle. The total of all previous awards from 1856 was 522. In the last great war 579 Victoria Crosses and two bars were awarded. There were 111 V.C.s awarded in the Crimea, 182 in the fighting after the Indian Mutiny, and 78 in South Africa. The Navy had the honour of winning the firs.t V.C. in the present struggle. This was announced on June 8 as having been given posthumously to Captain Warburton Lee for heroism at the F r irst Battle of Narvik. Captain Warburton Lee commanded the flotilla of five destroyers, his own ship being H.M.S. Hardy, in the first raid on the strongly-held Narvik fiord. So powerful were the defences that the Admiralty left the question of deciding whether or not to attack to Captain Warburton Lee. He 'determined to go in, and the Hardy led the way. She was heavily engaged by two German vessels of heavier gun-power and also by shore guns, and after .making her torpedo attack and sinking or severely damaging a German destroyer, which blew up, she withdrew while her companions^carried out their raid. ' Another Attack. Then the Hardy attacked again, once, more under heavy fire, and finally attacked a third time. During this assault three large German destroyers were seen coming from Rombaks Fiord, and the Hardy was hit, Captain Warburton Lee being mortally wounded when a shell struck the bridge. Then, hit in the engine-room, the destroyer sank, and the captain was borne ashore by his men. He died there a few minutes later. The next two Victoria Crosses were won by the Royal Air Force after the drive in Flanders and 'France began. They were granted for the destruction of the last remaining bridge over the Albert Canal near Maastricht, across which the German armoured columns were making a thrust in the effort to split the Allied forces. Stores, oil, ammunition, everything, came across this bridge, which was heavily defended. A Constant Barrage. Anti-aircraft guns kept up a constant barrage of fire, and enemy fighters maintained incessant patrol at this key poivt in communications. The British bombers attacked eight times, shattered the river banks with explosives, shot down enemy fighter craft, and bombed anti-aircraft guns out of action. But the bridge was "not hit, and the traffic continued to pour across it. At the headquarters of the R.A.F. an officer explained the situation to the pilots and asked for volunteers for the dangerous work of destroying the bridge. There were so many volunteers that it was determined to draw lots. Names were written on slips of paper and put into a hat. Five crews were chosen, and they went off at once with a fighter escort. While our fighters attacked the German planes the bomber crews dived at their objective. Only ; one man came back, but the bridge was destroyed. Later V;C.s were awarded to Fly-ing-Officer D. E. Garland and Sergeant T. Gray, pilot and observer respectively, of the leading aircraft, to whom much of the success was due. Neither man returned from the raid. This week it was announced that Flying Officer W. H. Rhodes Moorhouse, son of the first airman to win the Cross in the World War, had beea awarded th,e D.F.C. Later This Time. It has taken much longer in this war for the first awards of the Victoria Cross to be made to the Army. In the World War the first nine awards were gazetted on November 16, 1914, and four of them were for deeds performed on August 23, 1914, only a little more than a fortnight after Britain declared war on Germany. The first name was that of Captain F. O. Grenfell, of the 9th Lancers, but his V.C. was won on August 24. Only two bars to the V.C. have been awarded, and both have gone to t&e Royal Army Medical Corps. The first was to Lieutenant A. M. Leake, whose first V.C. was won in South Africa and his second in France in November, 1914. The second was to Captain N. G. Chavasse, possibly the greatest hero the British nation has had. Both his V.Cs were won in the World War, one in 1916 and one in 1917, for work of remarkable gallantry—on the first occasion he saved the lives of more than 20 wounded men and on the second occasion worked for two days under heavy fire. Each time he was wounded, and later he died of wounds. Pension Granted. The Victoria Cross means more than honour; it means a pension. Non-com-missioned officers and men and officers, when they become ex-officers, receive a life pension of £10 per annum, and for each bar they are given an additional £5. Moreover, the £10 a year can be increased to £75 a year by the Secretary of War or the First Lord of the Admiralty if the recipient i» unable to maintain himself.