Page 40 - WW1 - 1914

Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1 Redditch Local History Society

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Birmingham Daily Post – Friday 30 October 1914

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Redditch Soldier’s Narrow Escape – Private L. Smithof the 3 Battalion
Worcestershire Regiment, who went out with the first part of the British Expeditionary Force,
has returned to this home at Other Road, Redditch, having been wounded in the left wrist by
portions of a shell at the battle of the Aisne. He went through the fight at Mons unhurt, but
had many narrow escapes. One shell, which burst only four yards from him, killed eight men
and wounded five others. Private Smith took part in the street fighting near Mons, when
between 900 and 1,000 Germans were accounted for. It was, he says, an awful sight to see
the enemy’s dead accumulate in great heaps. The British had to maintain a continuous
heavy rifle fire, as the Germans were so close, and the rifles of the British soldiers became so
hot that the weapons had to be changed from time to time.
Private Smith received his wound at the battle of the Aisne after passing unscathed through
many engagements. It was after he was injured in the arm that Smith performed a very
brave act, which probably, however, was the means of preserving his own life. A wounded
Irish soldier pleaded to be taken from the field, but as Smith had the use of only one arm he
found it difficult to render the needed help. He succeeded, however, in getting the wounded
man on his back, but, while carrying him away, there came another shower of shrapnel, and
the wounded Irishman said he had “got another in his back.” With the blood of his wounded
comrade streaming down his own neck, Smith eventually got the man to the field hospital,
where it was found he was dead.

Page: 40 © RLHS 2014