The Twin City star., 1918-04-20
.BAYONETS Three HUNS, BRAINS
Fourth, SAVES DAY FOR BRITISH
Bob Hanna Of Vancouver Wins Victoria Cross for Bravery in
Action-0ne Of the Most Thrilling Narratives Of the War,
If Not Of All Time-BloWs Up Hun Machine Gun
and Fights Single Handed in Trench.

? &
No. 75,ss1, c. 9. M. Robert Hanna.
Canadian infantry. For conspicuous
bravery in attack when his company met
with most severe enemy resistance and
ell the company officers became CASUAL
ties. A strong point. heavily protected by
wire and held by MACHINE gun, had beaten
on three assaults OF the company, with
heavy casualties. This warrant ofdcer,
under heavy machine gun and rifle nre,
coolly collected a party of men, and, lead
ing them against the strong point. rushed
through the wire and personally bayo.
netted three Of the enemy and Drained
the fourth. capturing the position and 81
lencing the machine gun.
This most courageous action displayed
courage and personal bravery Of the high
est order at this most critical moment OF
the attack. was. responsible for the cap.
ture Of most Important point, and but
for his daring action and determined
handling Of desperate situation the at
tack would not have succeeded. c. 3.
Ms outstanding gallantry, personal cour-
age and determined leading of his COM
pany is deserving of the highest possible
reward.-From the British Official Ga
zette.
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 a hundred other thumb
nail sketches Of the bravery of the
boys in the trenches, but the last few
lines give it more or less distinction.
To Hanna 1t merely was 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 new race to
roll up a single record to overshadow
that Of Hanna, who dropped In a
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 penny. A
TALON, and little while later he was
transformed on the field from ser
geant major to q lieutenant.
The government has had Hanna sit
for hts portrait for the National Gal
lery.
= Over the Top Twenty-Five Times.
It all happened at the battle Of vimy
Ridge. This particular incident took
place at Hill 20. Hanna had been in
I, 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, md, although stumbling
amid death and bursting shells for
/, days at time. had escaped injury.
Vimy was bloody spot. The Cana
dlans were there as they were ut the
Somme, Ypres, Lens and Passchen-
daeie. Near, Hill 20 was q stub Of a
trench which the Canadians had come
20 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 1t. For two
hours. waiting for dawn, the battalion
crawled out on its belly In No Mans
Land, waiting to rush over and sur
prise the Huns, whose trench was 500
yards away. Unknown to the Cana
dianS tho Huus were cra WILING o,1t 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