ECHO OF THE GREAT WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1934, Page 3

ECHO OF THE GREAT WAR

NEW ZEALAND V.C. IN FRANCE.

BROTHER OF STRATFORD WOMAN.

A story of daring and invincible courage almost impossible outside the pages of imaginative literature, and one that would put to shame the most stirring exploits of Great War fiction, is that of Sergeant D. F. Brown, the first of the New Zealand Division to gain the Victoria Cross in France. The award was a posthxxmous one, Sergeant Brown being killed in action in the great New Zealand offensive on the Somme, which was begun just 18 years ago this week. Records of the exploits for which the famoxxs decoration was awarded are kept by Mrs. A. O. Hugo, Opunake Road, Stratford, sister of Sergeant Brown. Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown was the third son of Mr. Robert Brown, Oamaru. He was farming at To tar a, North Otago, when war was declared, and irx 1915 he sold his farm and went to Trentham. He left for the front as a corporal in the North Otago Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Reinforcements at the age of 26. Aftex* a short stay in Egypt, he was sent to France, arriving at. Marseilles in May, 1916, and went straight up to Armentieres. He fell in the Somme offensive during the fierce fighting on October 1. Glowing tribute to the sterling qualities of Sergeant Brown was paid by Captain P. H. Ferguson, O.C. the Company in a letter to Mr. R. Brown afterwards. “He was,a platoon sergeant from the time of the formation of the 2nd Brigade in March,” he wrote, “and was always unsparing in his efforts to do his duty and to do all he could for the welfare of those under him. . . He was steady and reliable under fire and in positions of danger, and by his example kept his men steady. He was in his element when in charge of a patrol in No Man’s Land, and could always be relied upon to obtain any information required.” The following special cable was received on June 15 of the following year from the New Zealand War Correspondent in France: “Details of the heroic conduct that won the New Zealand Division its first V.C. in France were not known until long after the fighting in which it was gained and until long after Sergeant Brown was killed in action in the second Somme offensive. The' North Otago Company, to which he belonged, went into that action with officers; it came out with no officers. The command of the company devolved upon Sergeant Rodgers. He and Sergeant Brown, after killing four of .the crew, charged and captured a machine-gxxn that was holding up the advance. Later in the day the advance was again held up by anothex - gun, and Sergeant Brown, after bayoneting several Germans in the trench, disposed of the gun’s crew. His Company had .to stand all the afternoon under an intense bombardment, during which Sergeant Brown showed remarkable . spirit and absolute contempt of danger in attack. On October 1, ( on the third line, he again displayed great bravery Singlehanded, he attacked another machinegum killing all the crew and capturing the gun itself. “While sniping at the retreatxng enemy fifty yards in advance of his post, he was himself killed.”