extraordinary_anecdotes

In search of her husband, who had deserted her, Hannah Snell disguised herself as a man and, using the alias of James Gray, enlisted in the Royal Marines in Portsmouth in 1745. She went on to serve for four and a half years without her true sex being discovered, despite being stripped to the waist and flogged on one occasion! At the siege of Pondicherry in India in 1748, "......one of the common men was shot close to her right hand side, upon which she fired and killed the very man that shot her comrade....." Later she sustained 11 shots in her legs (probably shell splinters) and a more dangerous musket shot in her groin. This latter wound she concealed from the doctor to prevent her secret being discovered and, by digging around in the wound with her forefinger and thumb, managed to extract the musket ball herself! On leaving the service she revealed her secret and attracted an instant proposal of marriage from one of her shipmates - she turned him down. She became quite a celebrity and appeared on the stage and later kept a public house in Wapping called "The Widow in Mascarade". Her first husband had been reputedly executed for murder whilst she was serving in
the Marines. She took two further husbands and died insane at Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) in 1789.

Never mind Henry Hook and the other ten V.C. winners, the most colourful character at the Defence of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu War of 1879 was Reverend George Smith. A massive man 6’6” tall and weighing 18 stone, the red bearded Smith must have presented a fearsome sight to Tommies and Zulus alike. At the height of the action he was seen pacing the defensive perimeter handing out Martini Henry cartridges to the men, exhorting the men with Biblical quotations and shouting, “Don’t swear, boys. Just shoot.” After Rorke’s Drift he was always known as “Ammunition” Smith.

On the 1st July 1916, near Thiepval Wood, France, in a concentration trench, a box of bombs being opened for distribution prior to an attack slipped down into the trench, which was crowded with men, and two of the safety pins fell out. Private McFadzean, instantly realising the danger to his comrades, with heroic courage threw himself on the top of the bombs, which exploded, blowing him to pieces, but only one other man was injured. He well knew the danger, being himself a bomber, but without a moment's hesitation he gave his life for his comrades.

The greatest American hero of World War I was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who ended his short war of only six months as the top U.S. flying ace with 26 victories (22 planes and 4 balloons). Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1890, he left school at 13. He became a racing driver whilst still in his teens. In 1916, his last year of racing, he won $60,000 in prize money - a considerable sum of money in those days.

When the US entered World War I in 1917, Rickenbacker applied for pilot training, but was past the age of 25 and lacked a college degree. He joined General Pershing's staff as a sergeant driver. He drove for Col. Billy Mitchell, who arranged for him to enter flying training. He joined the 94th "Hat-in-the-Ring" Aero Squadron and flew his first combat mission on April 14th, 1918. Within 6 weeks he was an ace with six confirmed victories. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor, which was belatedly approved 12 years later.

During WW2 he was appointed as a troubleshooter by the War Department. In 1942 the B-17 in which he was travelling from Hawaii to Australia was forced to ditch at sea. Rickenbacker assumed leadership of the seven Air Force men who drifted with him for 24 days in life rafts, surviving on rain water and the few fish they were able to catch. Only one died. Rickenbacker died in 1973, aged 83.

Probably the most colourful character to ride in the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 was John Vahey, regimental butcher of the 17th Lancers and known to all as “Butcher Jack”. Canon William Lummis describes his activities : -

“ Vahey……was slaughtering on the morning of the 25th. Hearing of the Heavy Brigade’s charge, he went to rejoin his regiment, still in his bloody overalls , stopping only to put on the sword and pouch of a dead soldier and riding off on his horse. He was directed by Lieutenant Chadwick to rejoin his own squadron, which he did and rode with Wightman down the valley. Vahey’s horse was shot and he lay insensible beneath it. When he was eventually released he walked back from whence he started.

Colonel T. E. Lawrence who in 1917-18 operated with a small group of other British officers alongside the Arabs against the Turks. Lawrence organised raiding parties attacking the Hejaz railway which isolated the city of Medina and obliged the Turks to divert 25,000 troops. The Arab Revolt laid the ground for Allenby's offensive of September 1918. Lawrence and his Arab allies entered Damascus at the end of the month. A complex figure, prone to fantasy, Lawrence was nevertheless, a discerning theorist of guerilla warfare, describing his exploits in 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.' In the 1920s he joined the RAF under the assumed name of Shaw as an Aircraftsmen and was later killed riding his motorbike near his home in Dorset.

How many men could have claimed to have ridden in the Charge of the Light Brigade and later fought in the American Civil War? Probably only one. He was the fearsome looking R.S.M. Thomas Morley. He fought in the Crimean War with the 17th Lancers, the same regiment as Butcher Jack Vahey (see above) – the two must have known each other. He took part in the Charge at Balaclava in 1854. After his discharge he travelled to America in 1862 and served as a Lieutenant (later promoted Captain) with the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry and was twice taken prisoner of war by the Confederates. Morley’s qualities did not include modesty. He had a very high opinion of himself and repeatedly petitioned on his own account over a period of 35 years for the Victoria Cross which he believed he deserved for bravery at Balaclava and Inkermann. He didn’t get it.

For a varied campaigning life Sir Garnet Wolseley cannot be beaten. He is 'The Modern Major General' in Gilbert and Sullivan's 'The Pirates of Penzance.' He was one of the most important figures in British Army history and he began his military career by being badly wounded in the Burma War. He was twice wounded in the Crimea (losing an eye on one occasion). He fought in India during the Mutiny, then served in China during the War of 1860. He then went to Canada and put down The Red River Rebellion. Then he went to Africa where he first fought the Ashantis and then the Zulus (he captured Cetewayo). In Egypt he beat Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir and then in the Sudan he arrived at Khartoum just too late to rescue Gordon. He also found time to visit America and witness for himself the new age of modern warfare during The American Civil War. During his visit he met General Lee and 'Stonewall' Jackson.

It's the most famous cliché in football - "It was a game of two halves". How well this describes the career of General Sir Redvers Buller V.C. - two very different "halves". Commissioned in 1858 he served in five wars and colonial campaigns between 1860 and 1885. He won the Victoria Cross rescuing three of his men at Inhlobane during the Zulu War of 1879. He was a brilliant commander of irregular cavalry and an inspirational regimental officer. So far, so good. Alas he was subsequently promoted beyond his capability, and, as Commander of British Forces in South Africa in 1899, his ineptitude, indecision and tactical naivety were cruelly exposed by the Boers. He did eventually relieve Ladysmith, but in the 118 days it took him to do so, his efforts lurched from one disaster to another and included the appalling defeats at Colenso and Spion Kop. He became the butt of jokes and was nicknamed Sir 'Reverse' Buller. Fun was made of his expansive waistline and his propensity to consume large quantities of champagne whilst on campaign. His career lay in ruins. He was eventually sacked from the army in disgrace in 1901.

The most highly decorated N.C.O. of the First World War was Lance Corporal William Coltman of the North Staffordshire Regiment. Not only did he win the Victoria Cross, but also the Distinguished Conduct Medal and bar and the Military Medal and bar – a total of five separate gallantry awards. He achieved all this without firing a shot! He was a stretcher bearer. He won his V.C. on 3/4th October 1918 at Mannequin Hill. On hearing that wounded men had been left behind during the retirement, he went forward alone in the face of fierce enfilade fire on three occasions, found the casualties, dressed their wounds and carried some of them to safety on his back.

John Penn was the son of the Farrier-Major of the 14th Light Dragoons. He joined the cavalry as soon as he was able and first saw action in Afghanistan (1839-42). He then fought in the first Sikh War (1845-46). During the Battle of Moodkee he engaged a Sikh artilleryman in hand-to-hand combat and although he slew the Sikh he sustained a severe blow to the head. Dazed, he wandered off and was not found until the following day, suffering from hypothermia. He then went on to fight at the Battle of Sobraon. During the Second Sikh War (1848-49) he fought at Ramnuggar, Chenab, Soodoolapore, Chillianwalla and Gujerat. The 3rd Light Dragoons returned to England in 1853. Within days of his return, Penn had volunteered for service with the 17th Lancers who were leaving for Turkey. They arrived in the Crimea in September 1854. He fought at Alma and Mackenzie's Farm. He then charged with the Light Brigade at Balaclava. After his horse was wounded behind the Russian guns, he killed a Russian officer and took his sword. Using this sword, he fought his way to safety. He then took part in the Battle of Inkerman. Later he was invalided home after suffering sunstroke at Baldar in 1855. He received eleven decorations for gallantry.

Rollo Gillespie grew up in County Down, but instead of going to Cambridge, joined the 3rd Irish Horse as a cornet. He was involved in a duel, fled to Scotland, but then returned voluntarily to stand trial in 1788. The verdict was 'justifiable homicide'. He then joined the Jamaica Light Dragoons, was shipwrecked at Madeira and contracted yellow fever. He fought the French at Tiburon, Port-au-Prince, Fort Bizotten and For de l'Hopital. He was Adjutant-General of St. Domingo when eight men broke into his house. Armed only with his sword, he killed six of them and the other two fled. He was then involved in a fraud scandal but was acquitted by court martial in 1804. He travelled overland through Hamburg, Greece and Baghdad to India. He assisted in quelling a mutiny at a fort near Vellore in 1806. He was hauled up to the battlements by rope to take command. In 1811 he took the city of Batavia in Dutch Java. In 1812 he deposed the Sultan of Sumatra. On his return to India he killed a tiger in the open on Bangalore racecourse. In 1814, at the beginning of the Ghurka War he led a column to attack a Nepalese hill fort at Kalunga. The Ghurkas launched a sortie which was repulsed. Gillespie tried to follow them back into the fort with a dismounted party of the 8th Dragoons. Although this failed, Gillespie renewed the attack with companies of the 53rd Foot. He was trying to rally these men, just thirty yards from the fort when a Ghurka sharpshooter shot him through the heart. Without him the attack collapsed.

This description of Lady Sale appears in George MacDonald Fraser's book, 'Flashman and the Mountain of Light', from the brilliant 'Flashman' series.

Born Florentia Wynch, she was 21 when she married the dashing young Captain Robert Sale, by whom she had twelve children, one of whom, as Mrs. Alexandrina Sturt, shared with her mother the horrors of the march from Kabul. Lady Sale was then 54, but although she was twice wounded and had her clothing shot through by jezzail bullets, she worked tirelessly for the sick and wounded, and for the women and children who took part in that fearful journey over the snowbound Afghan passes. Throughout the march, and during the months which she suffered in Afghan captivity, she kept the diary which is the classic account of the Kabul retreat in which all but a handful died out of 14,000. It is one of the great military journals, and a remarkable personal memoir of an indomitable woman, who recorded battle, massacre, earthquake, hardship, escape, and everyday detail with a sharp and often caustic eye. Her reaction, when soldiers were reluctant to take up their muskets to form an advance guard was: "You had better give me one, and I will lead the party." Other typical observations are: "I had, fortunately, only one ball in my arm," and the brisk entry for July 24th, when she was a prisoner: "At two p.m. Mrs. Sturt presented me with a grand-daughter - another female captive." During the march her son-in-law, Captain Sturt, had died beside her in the snow. Her heroism on the march was rewarded by an annual pension of £500 from Queen Victoria, and when she died in her sixty-sixth year, her tombstone was given the appropriate inscription: 'Under this stone reposes all that could die of Lady Sale'.

Marc Volokhoff was a Tsarist officer before he joined the French Foreign legion. Commissioned in the 3e Régiment de Marche/1er Régiment Etranger in December 1914, he fought in the Dardanelles and the Balkans from August 1915 to September 1916; in 1917 he qualified as a military pilot. Joining the RMLE in February 1918, he was badly wounded and won the knight's cross of the Légion d'Honneur while leading a machine gun platoon in the night attack on the Dommiers plateau on 18th July, 1918. In 1923-25, while a lieutenant he was on detached flying duty with the 37th Aviation Regiment in Morocco. A captain from March 1925, being wounded again and twice decorated; one citation mentions his gallantry in low-level bombing runs over Bibane on 13th May. Granted French citizenship, he retired in 1930 but was recalled in 1939 and sent to Bacarès to help form the 22e RMVE. Dismissed early in 1941, he was arrested for Resistance activities in January 1943, but survived the war and died aged 93 in 1979.

Since posting this story on my website, I have received an e-mail from Marc Volokhoff's grandson. Apparently Marc Volokhoff was born in Lodz in Poland and the family are trying to find out any more information about him. If you have any information please e-mail it to me and I will pass it on to the family.

Everyone had heard of George Armstrong Custer, even before he was immortalised by Hollywood. This flamboyant, charismatic cavalry commander is an icon of 19th century America. He had a meteoric rise to fame during the Civil War, culminating in his brevet to Major General at the age of only 25. His death at the hands of Sitting Bull in an apparently heroic last stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 is an American history classic. Far fewer people have heard of his younger brother, Tom Custer, who, in both life and death, lived in the shadow of his famous brother. Yet Tom achieved something that George never did. In fact, by being awarded not one but two Medals of Honor, he achieved something that no other soldier achieved during the Civil War. Both awards were made for capturing rebel flags, the incidents occurring within four days of each other. Eye witness to the second act of battlefield bravery, General Henry Capehart, described the action :-

"It was from the second line that he wrested the colors, single-handed, and only a few paces to my right. As he approached the colors he received a shot in the face which knocked him back on his horse, but in a moment he was again upright in his saddle. Reaching out his right arm, he grasped the flag while the color-bearer reeled. The bullet from Tom's revolver must have pierced him in the region of the heart. As he was falling, Captain Custer wrenched the standard away from his grasp and bore it away in triumph. For intrepidity I never saw this incident surpassed."

In the photograph (right) Captain Custer can be seen wearing both medals. He died, aged 31, with his brother at the Little Big Horn.

The only Feldgendarme (Military Police) to be decorated with the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was Leutenant Heinz Heuer. 1945 saw Heuer leading a small Kampfgruppe in the defence of Berlin, the city of his birth. On 16th April Heuer and his group were given the task of clearing out a suspected Russian command post. On the night of the 21st, Heuer and his men surprised and overcame the guards on the Russian command post and captured maps and important documents. On his return he helped to destroy 27 enemy tanks, his own score being an amazing 13 tanks, achieved using the 'Panzerfaust' hand-held anti-tank projectile. On reporting to General Krebs, he was immediately decorated with the Knight's Cross and promoted to Leutenant der Feldgendarmerie. Heuer was then ordered to take a personal message from Hitler to SS-General Felix Steiner. He set off by motorcycle, but was captured by Soviet troops. In the style of the best spy stories, Heuer managed to chew up and swallow the message. The Soviets were in no mood to take prisoners and Heuer, together with other captured Germans, was given a spade and told to dig himself a shallow grave. As he smoked a last cigarette, an artillery barrage came crashing in, forcing the Soviet guards to take cover, at which moment Heuer and his comrades made good their escape. At the war's end Heuer once again found himself in Soviet captivity. He was sent to Siberia but with help of a Russian woman doctor was able to arrange repatriation to Berlin - where he was denounced and arrested once again. Severely debilitated and weighing only six stone, Heuer managed to escape once again and made his way to the Western Zone, where he eventually returned to a police career.

from Captain Michael F. Monahan, Grenadier Company, His Majesty's Fifth Regiment of Foot (In America)

Born in Stepney in 1713, Phoebe Hessel disguised herself as a man and became a soldier in order to be with the man whom she loved and eventually married. She served in the 5th Regiment of Foot for 17 years, fighting under William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, at the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of Austrian Succession. She received a bayonet wound in the arm which many years later she would proudly display. In her later years she sold fish at a stall on the Steine in Brighton. Phoebe is also famous for her longevity, reaching the age of 108 years and became a celebrated character in Brighton, in the Prince Regent's time there. She died in 1821. Phoebe Hessel was granted a pension by King George IV, whose coronation she attended, and it was he who ordered her tombstone.