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| General Freyberg was considered by Churchill to be a
'man's soldier', he was awarded the VC in the First World War. The
following is from Liddle's book on the Battle of The Somme. |
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| Colonel Freyberg, now leading a mixed force of
men from his own battalion, from the Drake Battalion (RND) and from the
1st Battalion HAC, had moved on towards the second objective, Beaucourt,
before the shelling of both sides forced a retirement to a position he
ordered consolidated among the shell holes. The CO wanted to take
Beaucourt but the British barrage did not lift and he was informed that
this was because the situation on the left was as yet unclear. On
the right, actually at the crossing of the Ancre, contact had been made
with the 1st Battalion Cambridge Regiment so an important link had been
established there. However, for the afternoon and night there
could be only the holding of what had been taken and the organization of
an attacking force from the men he had and those who had joined him from
his left, or were sent up to reinforce him. |
| In the morning the order to attack was given
and at 7.45 Freyberg led forward a mixed body of men from battalions of
the Royal Naval Division and from other units. The
Second-in-Command of the Hood Battalion, Major L. Montagu, in a letter
written six days later, described what happened. He saw Freyberg
jump out of his trench and wave the men on, Montagu and three men beside
him followed. They came under heavy small arms fire and the first
wave stopped three times. Freyberg was knocked clean over by a
bullet which hit his helmet but he got up again. "I and my
runner dived into a shell hole and waited about half a minute. I
said I would go back and get some more men out of the trench and crawled
about ten yards back to do so. Then about a dozen men came out and
I got up and waved the rest on, they all followed. We soon got in
to Beaucourt (of course absolute ruins) and found that the Germans could
not face our men and were surrendering in hundreds. It was an
amazing sight, they came out of their holes, tearing off their
equipment." Freyberg arranged the consolidation of the
village and there was even some opportunity for refreshment and
celebratory conversation before fearfully heavy German shelling fell
upon their immediate vicinity. They were awaiting a counter-attack
when 'I heard Freyberg say "Goodbye Montagu" and then
"Steady Hood" and I saw he was hit and going a very bad
colour. He asked me if I had any morphine he then produced a tube
and asked me to give him some, I gave him 1/4 grain and labelled him to
say I had done so.' The CO had been wounded in the neck and was
bleeding profusely. Montagu had been wounded too, another man
killed and one wounded. To Montagu's surprise, Freyberg did not
die. In fact he continued to give instructions until he asked his
Second-in-Command if he could walk to an Aid Post. Under
shellfire, the two men completed the 300 yard journey back, the worst
part for Montagu being the wounded men they passed, imploring him for
help. |
| Freyberg's leadership and personal gallantry
were to result in the award of the Victoria Cross. |
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| Freyberg was to make mistakes in the defence
of Crete, but his own personal bravery was not at issue. |
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