Page 41 - WW1 - 1914

Redditch Local History Society Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1

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The Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch Messenger – Saturday 31 October
1914

Redditch Man in the 3rd Worcesters – Wounded at the Battle of the Aisne –
Private L. Smith of Other Road, Redditch, who was wounded while serving with the
Worcestershire Regiment at the battle of the Aisne has returned home. He has undergone
three operations, and pieces of shell have been taken out of his wrist. He went through the
battle of Mons, in which he had many narrow escapes. One shell which burst four yards from
him killed eight and wounded five men. Private Smith took part in a fight in a street near
Mons, where 900 Germans were killed, the dead accumulating in heaps. The Germans, he
says, came up close, and so continuous was the fire that the British soldiers’ rifles became
very hot, and had to be changed from time to time. He was injured in the battle of the Aisne,
where he performed a gallant act. A wounded Irishman wanted to be taken away. Smith
could only use one arm, but he managed to get the man on his back. A shower of shrapnel
fell, and the Irishman shouted that he had got another wound in the back. With the blood
streaming down his neck, Smith got the man to hospital, where it was found he was dead.
Smith is suffering from rheumatism through being in the wet trenches.

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