"SANDERS, V.C."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19932, 28 April 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

"SANDERS, V.C."

"Rosemary, that'e for remembrance." Theer are perhaps hundreds of brave soldiers who have won the- V.C., Lieu-tenant-Commander W. E. Sanders was a bravo New Zealander who won it and then died for his country. At first he was a naval officer in command of a trawler in the North Sea. He often was ill-pleased with his lot, because he wanted to be on some great battleship. One day, while he was thinking thus, he saw a white streak tearing through the waves straight toward his, ship. Tho next instant the trawler was smashed to bits and he found himself struggling in the water along with his companions, some alive and others dead. He saw no piece of wreckage big enough to support him, so he swam in th{i direction of land. As he was swimming his feet struck something that was movins, and, after he investigated, he found it to be the German U-boat that had just sent his vessel and its crew under the deadly waves; so he sat on top of it, with his Colt's automatic pistol pointed at the trapdoor and his eye watching it. Soon, however, the face of a German officer appeared, and so he fired. The German lurched forward, so he seized the body so that it might not be drawn baclc, and so blocked the closing of the door. He squatted on the shoulders of the dead commander and with his eyes fixed on the single exit sat with his pistol pointed at it. Ho waited for a second head to appear, but none did. He sat so long that he began ft) feel numb. At last he saw a British destroyer and waved his free hand to it. A toot from the vessel told him that he had been seen and in a few minutes the destroyer was alongside, ready to take the prize which this brave soldier had captured single-handed. —Sent by Mary Norrish, Ohaupo.