Ellsworth American., 1918-04-24


with NEST severe enemy resistance and
all the company officers became casual
ties A strong point heavily protected by
wire and held by machine gun, had beaten
OF three assaults of the company, with
heavy casualties. This warrant officer.
under heavy machine gun and rifle hre.
coolly collected a party of men, and, lead
ing them against the strong point, rushed
through the wire and personally oayo-
netted three of the enemy and Drained
the fourth. capturing the position and ST.
lencing the machine gun.
This most courageous action dispiaye ed
courage and personal bravery Of the hign-
est order at this most critical moment OF
the attack. was responsible for the cap
ture of a most important point, and put
for his daring action and determined
handling OF a desperate situation the at
tack would not have succeeded. c. :.
MS outstanding gallantry, personal conr-
age and determined leading OF his com
pany is deserving of the highest possible
reward-From the British Otnciai Ca
xette.
Fought Huns Single Handed.
And so Sergeant Major (Now Lieu
tenant) Bob" Hanna, OF Vancouver.
B. c.. received the Victory cross. The
reprint from the Official Gazette reads
almost like hundred other thumb
nail sketches Of the bravery of the
bows in the trenches, but the last few
lines give 1t more or less distinction.
To Hanna 1t merely was a days work.
To the men of the twenty-ninth Van
couver battalion the Victory cross,
which is securely pinned to Hanna's
waistcoat, is emblematic of one of the
thrilling personal narratives of the en-
tire war. If not, In fact, of all time.
Stories of gallantry and self-sacrifice
will be told while the world endures.
but 1t will remain for a new race to
roll up a single record TO overshadow
that of Hanna, who dropped in
trench all alone and single handed
fought the cream Of the Prussian
guards-the men who never were de-
feated till then and who went down
one after another before this medium
sized young lumberman from the for
ests of British Columbia. One moment
Hanna's life wasn't worth a penny.
few minutes later he had saved a bat
TALON, and a little while later he was
transformed on the field from ser
geant major TO lieutenant.
The government has had Hanna sit
for his portrait for the National Gal
lery.
Over the Top Twenty-Five Times.
1t all happened at the battle of yimy
Ridge. This particular incident took
place at Hill 20. Hanna had been in
many of the worst battles of the war.
Before the valiant Canadians settled
down to their part of this slaughter OF
vimy Ridge Hanna had been "over the
top" twenty-five times; had been at
grips with the Germans on numberless
occasions, and. although stumbling
amid death and bursting shells for
days at time. had escaped injury.
Vimy was bloody spot. The Cana
dians were there as they were at the
Somme, Ypres, Lens and Passchen-
daele. Near Hill 20 WAS a stub of a
trench which the Canadians had come
to realize was the worst spot they had
to face. 1t was only link and hardly
could be seen, but 1t was known to
be nasty point, and the twenty ninth
battalion was told to take II. For two
hours, waiting for dawn, the battalion
crawled out on It's belly In No Mans
Land, waiting to rush over and sur
prise the Huns, whose trench was 500
yards away. Unknown TO the Cana
dams the Huns were crawling out from
their dugout to initiate the same move
ment against the Canadians. At the
same moment two barrages started
one from the Germans and one from
the Canadians guns. The two lines of
crouching men arose and plunged
toward each other. The bayonet clash
was brief. The ground quickly was
,strewn with dead and the Germans
backed up TO the stub of trench
which was, to the soldiers. like the
root Of an aching tooth. Wire en-
tanglements stayed the pursuit of the
Canadians. who, however, hewed their
way through.
He Blows Up Machine Gun.
Six hundred and fifty men went
~over the top with Hanna Perhaps
two-thirds of this number went on to-
ward the trench, but this remnant was
decimated by machine gun which
the Huns had set up on the parapet.
The crew of this gun played 1t on the
Canadians like a hose and all the of
fieers Were killed or injured Hanna
plugged on in the face of the dreadful
fire. He had Mills bomb and this
he hurled at the machine gun and
smashed it, killing or injuring the
men who We're feeding In the bullets.
1t had done its deadly work. Hanna
was standing alone. All about him
were lying his comrades, either dead
or badly wounded. Part Of the bat
TALON had spread and, he assumed,
would come around back of the trench
and enter II from the other end. He
jumped into the trench and In sec
ond saw a row Of stalwart Prussians
coming single file-this was neces-
sarv hacauSa af the nerrounauS NJ tho