Best and Bravest

by Glyn Harper

  Sergeant Harry Laurent led a patrol of 12 men from the Rifle Brigade’s 2nd Battalion. His patrol did more than contact the enemy. After some bad map-reading they overshot the German trenches and penetrated 700 metres behind the German lines. Harry realised the mistake when he hit the German artillery gun line, but decided to make the most of the opportunity. Harry quickly organised his men and they launched a daring attack right in the heart of the German position. It was spectacularly successful: 20 Germans were killed and 112 captured. Only one man from Harry’s patrol was killed while three were wounded.

  It is a tribute to Harry’s skills that he was able to bring out his patrol and prisoners under very dangerous conditions. Eight men had to fight a difficult rearguard action while preventing over 100 German prisoners from escaping. It was an outstanding achievement, and his VC was announced on 12 November 1918.

  Harry Laurent also has a street named after him in his parents’ hometown of Hawera — Laurent VC Avenue.

  PRIVATE JAMES CRICHTON

  At the end of September 1918 Private James Crichton became the last New Zealand soldier to receive a VC in the First World War. James Crichton was an unusual soldier. Born in Carrickfergus, Ireland, in 1879, he served with the Cameron Highland Regiment in the South African war.

  After quitting his job as a cable splicer in Auckland, James joined the NZEF in 1914 and sailed from New Zealand. In April 1918, after serving with the 1st Field Bakery at Gallipoli and France, James requested a transfer to an infantry unit, and although he was nearly 40 years old, he gave up his rank of warrant officer to join the 2nd Auckland Battalion as a private.

  During the crossing of the Scheldt River near Crèvecoeur James’ platoon ran into serious trouble. It became trapped on an island in the middle of the river when German machine-gun fire swept the stone bridge leading from the island, killing several men, including the platoon commander and sergeant.

  To make matters worse, the bridge behind them had been prepared for demolition with explosive mines. The platoon needed to communicate its desperate situation back to company headquarters.

  Although he had been wounded in the foot James Crichton volunteered for this dangerous task. He swam the river fully clothed, hauled himself up onto an exposed bank in full view of the Germans and sprinted over 100 metres of broken ground to report to company headquarters. As if this wasn’t enough he then returned to his platoon, carrying the company commander’s message to hold on.

  James moved to the bridge and located the explosives under it. While under fire from machine-guns and snipers, he managed to remove the fuses and detonators, which he put in his pocket, throwing the mines in the water. James was then told to report what he’d done to the company commander, so he made the dangerous trip a third time. He was about to rejoin the platoon when his company commander ordered him to remain at headquarters. James then helped the stretcher-bearers with their heavy loads until the pain of his wound became too obvious and he was sent, under protest, to a field hospital.

  As a result of these incredible actions James Crichton was recommended for the VC, which was announced on 12 November 1918.

  Anzac VCs on the Somme

  During 1918 two other New Zealanders, who like Thomas Cooke and Alfred Shout had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, were to receive the VC. They were Lieutenant Percy Storkey and Corporal Lawrence Weathers.

  LIEUTENANT PERCY STORKEY

  Percy Valentine Storkey was born in Napier in 1891 and he attended Napier Boys’ High School. By the outbreak of war Percy was a law student, and his family was living in Vaucluse, Sydney. On 7 April 1918 Lieutenant Percy Storkey was awarded the VC at Hangard Wood on the Somme.

  During a dawn attack his company of the 19th Battalion AIF came under heavy machine-gun fire and one quarter of the men were killed or wounded, including the company commander. Percy Storkey took command.

  Percy ordered the company to take cover and led a small party of 11 men around the German machine-gun position. They were able to get behind the German position without being seen until one of the Australians, seeing the backs of about a hundred German soldiers, ‘let out a string of traditional Australian oaths in a loud voice’.

  With the element of surprise gone Percy Storkey led a bayonet charge against the nearest German post and easily overcame it. He called on the rest of the Germans to surrender. They refused, so Percy threw Mills bombs at them until they did. About 30 Germans had been killed or wounded, while three officers and 50 men surrendered.

  Percy didn’t have enough men to hold the position, so he led what was left of his company and the prisoners back to the start line. Lieutenant Storkey was recommended for the VC, which was announced on 7 June 1918.

  The fate of Percy Storkey’s VC caused a small scandal in Hawke’s Bay in the early 1980s. When he died in 1969, Percy Storkey left his VC to Napier Boys’ High School. In 1983 the school Parents’ League decided to sell Percy’s VC and use the money to provide student scholarships. This caused a storm of outrage, forcing the Parents’ League to back down and the VC was given on long-term loan to the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum in Waiouru.

  CORPORAL LAWRENCE WEATHERS

  Lawrence Carthage Weathers, born in Te Koparu in 1890, and was an undertaker from Parkside, South Australia when he enlisted. On 2 September 1918 Corporal Lawrence Weathers of the 43rd Battalion AIF earned a VC at Allaines, north of Mont St Quentin on the Somme.

  His battalion had been ordered to clear German resistance east of Allaines village. Despite being surrounded, the Germans put up a ferocious fight. Lawrence went forward alone, right up to the German position, and attacked it with Mills bombs. He killed many Germans in this attack, including their commander. But he hadn’t finished. Lawrence returned to the Australian lines for more bombs and went forward again, this time with three others.

  While they covered him with their Lewis gun, Lawrence crawled up to the edge of the German position and bombed it again. This distracted the Germans long enough for a platoon of infantry to capture the position along with 180 German prisoners and three machine-guns. Corporal Lawrence Weathers was recommended for the VC but never knew it had been awarded. He was critically wounded on 26 September 1918 and died three days later.

  VC in the Air

  SECOND LIEUTENANT

  WILLIAM RHODES-MOORHOUSE

  William Rhodes-Moorhouse wasn’t a New Zealander, but he had strong Kiwi connections. His father, Edward Moorhouse, was an Englishman who lived and worked in New Zealand for many years. However, it was William’s mother, Mary Ann, who gives New Zealand a claim to the first ever VC awarded to an airman.

  Mary Ann was the daughter of William Barnard Rhodes, a Yorkshireman who made his fortune as a grazier in Canterbury and the North Island. Mary Ann had been born in 1852 and her mother was Māori. After her father died Mary Ann inherited a fortune. She married Edward Moorhouse and they moved to England.

  William Barnard Moorhouse was born in London on 26 September 1887 and went to school at Harrow and then went on to Cambridge University. However, he was more interested in cars and motorcycles than study. In 1906 he knocked down and killed a boy while racing, though he was only fined. After he left Cambridge he became interested in flying. By 1911 he had his pilot’s certificate and was designing and building planes. On a visit to America he won a number of aviation prizes and was the first man to fly under the Golden Gate Bridge.

  When he married in 1912 he flew his bride and a journalist across the English Channel, the first flight with more than one passenger. In 1913 he changed his surname to Rhodes-Moorhouse so he would be able to inherit his grandfather’s money.

  As soon as war broke out, William joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), where he was given a job as an instructor in England. Eventually he was posted to a front-line squadron. In March 1915 he flew a BE2b across the Channel to join his new unit. He had only been with 2 Squadron five weeks when he set off on his final flight, becoming the first airman and the fir
st Māori to be awarded the VC.

  In mid-April 1915 the fighting around the French town of Ypres was very heavy. The Germans had just used gas for the first time and had broken through the Allied lines at St Julien. To try and stop them bringing through reinforcements, the RFC’s 2 Squadron was told to bomb the three key communication centres of Roubaix, Tourcoing and the railway at the Courtrai–Menin junction.

  The BE2b was an unarmed two-seater observation plane that could carry up to 45 kilograms of bombs. To carry maximum bombs it was best for the pilot to fly alone, but even so, the plane was very slow, with a top speed of only 112 kilometres per hour.

  Second Lieutenant William Rhodes-Moorhouse was given the target at Courtrai. It took 35 minutes for him to fly there from 2 Squadron’s airfield at Merville, but he didn’t attack immediately. First, William circled up high to make sure he was in the right place. He had been told to drop his single 45-kilogram bomb from high up, but he began a shallow dive. He knew a bomb dropped from higher up didn’t have much chance of hitting the target. William’s plan was to come in low and release the bomb where it would have a better chance, even if it meant flying his plane on a straight course low over the target. He knew he would be flying close enough to be hit by small-arms fire from the ground, and be dangerously close to his own bomb’s explosion.

  William’s first pass over the target alerted the German troops and the ground fire when he attacked was fierce, including fire from a machine-gun in the church belfry. His plane suffered bullet and bomb shrapnel damage in the bomb run and William was badly wounded by a bullet through his thigh, but he hit the line west of the station. Then, in pain from his wound, in a damaged plane, and struggling to gain speed, he had to cross the target again, now at only 30 metres, to get away. His plane was hit again and William was wounded in the stomach and hand.

  Losing blood and in pain, William managed to fly his plane back to the British lines and land at his own airfield. He had to be helped out of his cockpit, which was described as being ‘awash with blood’. Instead of getting immediate medical attention, William insisted on making a full report. However, there was little that the medics could do for him. When he knew he was going to die, William asked to be buried in England. He passed away at 2.30 p.m. the next day, 27 April 1915.

  His body was taken back to England and was buried at his family home at Parnham House. Twenty-five years later the ashes of his son, Flight Lieutenant William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse, DFC, who was killed flying a Hurricane in the Battle of Britain, were put beside his father.

  THE WAR AT SEA

  New Zealand’s Only Naval VC

  LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SANDERS

  William Sanders was born in Auckland on 7 February 1883. He went to sea in 1897, aged about 14, and by the time he was 26 he had worked his way up to become a first mate and held an extra master’s ticket. Shortly after the war started the sailing ship he was serving on was wrecked and William showed skill and coolness by bringing survivors ashore in the ship’s boats, through difficult surf.

  He joined the Union Steamship Company, where he was an officer on troopships going to the Middle East. In June 1915 he applied to join the Royal Navy. When he was accepted, he worked his passage to England where he became a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve.

  Because William had worked on sailing ships he was made second in command and gunnery officer of the SV Helgoland, a two-masted Dutch brigantine, armed with four 12-pounder guns and a machine-gun. These old ships were decoy vessels and were known as Q-ships. The idea was to wait until a German submarine (U-boat) attacked on the surface, because they thought these were unarmed merchant ships, and then to engage and sink them when they got close enough. William performed well in this first appointment and once again acted coolly in action against U-boats in September and October. During one of these attacks a gun screen jammed, but William managed to free it while under enemy fire.

  William was promoted to acting lieutenant and sent to command his own ship. HMS Prize was a three-masted German topsail schooner, and was the first enemy vessel seized when the war began. She had been chosen for her special role because of her design — a wooden schooner looked less dangerous and not quite worth a torpedo. The Prize was equipped with two hidden 12-pounder guns as well as machine-guns. Her crew were naval reservists, ex-merchant seamen or fishermen.

  After she had been set up with her weapons and disguise, she left Milford Haven on 26 April 1917 for her first patrol. Nothing happened for the first four days and the crew didn’t see any German ships. On 30 April she was near the end of her patrol, about 290 kilometres southwest of Ireland.

  The alarm sounded at 8.45 p.m. The schooner was being stalked by U-93, with a veteran crew under U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Georg Freiherr (Baron) von Spiegel. The U-93 was ending a successful cruise. She had already sunk 11 vessels and used up all her torpedoes. However, U-93 had 105-mm deck guns mounted in front of and behind her conning tower. The Prize was a tempting target.

  Everything went well for the Germans. They fired two warning shots, one ahead and one behind, and saw the schooner’s crew taking to their lifeboats. The next few shots damaged the ship and fires broke out. Von Spiegel scanned the vessel’s deck carefully, but saw no sign of life through the smoke. After firing 16 rounds in 20 minutes, and seeing the Prize taking on water, he ordered his submarine to move in closer for the kill.

  But it was a clever trap. The men who had ‘abandoned’ ship were the panic party and they deliberately approached the U-boat to force her to change course. The new course made the submarine a much better target when William Sanders unmasked his guns. The ‘fires’ were controlled and had been deliberately lit to create smoke. However, the German bombardment had caused some real damage. Although the crew was safe, the engine room was flooding and on fire, while the hull had been holed twice below the waterline. William had been able to move about the ship under cover to make sure his men were all right, but it took courage for the crew to remain hidden until the vital moment.

  William and his men held their nerve. He waited until U-93 was only 70–80 metres away before ordering ‘down screens and open fire’. At the same time he broke the White Ensign to indicate HMS Prize was a naval combat vessel. The Germans fired again and the Prize took her first casualties. Their rear gun opened fire and scored a hit on the submarine’s forward 105-mm gun, destroying it. At the same time the Lewis machine-gun killed and wounded several of the enemy deck party. The gun at the back of the Prize scored 10 hits on the submarine, while the one in front also found its mark. The submarine began to move and William suspected she was going to ram the Prize.

  However, at that moment the German’s rear 105-mm gun was hit and von Spiegel, who had gone back to direct the fight after he’d been driven out of the forward gun when it was destroyed, was knocked into the water. In the confusion the submarine took further hits, badly damaging the conning tower. Both vessels continued on course, until the submarine came to a halt 600 metres away, then slowly disappeared below the water.

  By now William and his crew were battling to keep the Prize afloat. The panic crew had rescued von Spiegel and a couple of his men, who also helped. Eventually, by shifting all the weight to one side, they were able to get the worst holes high enough above the waterline to be patched. It then took William Sanders until 2 May to bring his ship into port, where she needed three weeks of repairs before she was ready to resume her patrol.

  For his bravery and leadership against U-93 William Edward Sanders was awarded a VC. Awards were also made to his second in command, Lieutenant Beaton, who received the DSO; the warrant rates received the DSC and all remaining crew got the DSM. Because the actions of the Q-ships were still secret, no detail of the action was published. By this time HMS Prize, with her captain and crew, was back on patrol.

  However, U-93 had not sunk, but reached Kiel after an epic journey. HMS Prize was now a marked ship. Prize encountered another U-boat in June and William noticed that this one s
eemed careful. When it fired on him but would not come too close, he eventually unmasked his armament and drove the attacker off, for which he was awarded the DSO.

  HMS Prize’s next encounter with a U-boat was to be her last. On 13 August 1917 she was patrolling off Ireland, with the British submarine D6. The plan was for the Prize to act as the bait to lure a U-boat, and if she couldn’t destroy it herself to hold it long enough for D6 to attack. A U-boat was sighted, but D6 couldn’t find its target and the German slipped away. D6 met up with the Prize at 9.00 p.m. and was told the U-boat had come in as close as 200 metres and had been hit before making its escape.

  Unfortunately, the submarine commander was persistent and HMS Prize, now confirmed as a decoy ship, was a priority target. At 1.30 a.m. on 14 August the second officer on D6 saw the Prize blow up and sink, as the second of two torpedoes fired by UC-48 found its target. William Sanders and his entire crew were lost. As well as several monuments, William Sanders is commemorated through the national skiff sailing trophy which is named after him.

  THE SECOND WORLD WAR

  The second great conflict of the twentieth century lasted six years and was truly a global war. It was a horrific struggle that involved mass bombings of cities, concentration camps and many atrocities. New Zealand was one of the first countries to be involved in the war and made a massive effort to contribute to it. New Zealand’s military mobilisation was the largest in its history. In July 1942, New Zealand had 154,549 men and women serving in the military with a further 100,000 serving in the Home Guard.