"...The call was given to retreat, but Godley refused, telling the other men to go, he would give them cover.
As his comrades pulled out, the young Private maintained his fire, forcing the Germans to keep their heads down, preventing them from firing on the retreat. Godley continued for two hours, keeping up a constant fire into the tree line to his front.
Shells were landing all around him, either from German rifles or artillery.
A piece of shrapnel embedded itself in his back when an artillery shell landed near by.
A rifle bullet also hit him in the head, and amazingly he survived.
With blood now streaming from two potentially mortal wounds, Godley finally ran out of machine gun ammunition.
He was not done yet and picking up his rifle, he opened fire, shooting rapidly at any German who showed himself.
However, one man can not hold off an entire unit, and the Germans finally reached the bridge.
As enemy boots rattled across the railroad, Godley had one last spurt of courage.
He took the breechblock out of both machine guns, and dumped them into the river.
This denied these valuable tools falling into enemy hands.
As the German troops poured across the bridge, the 25-year-old soldier surrendered, and was taken back to Germany to have his wounds treated..."
Read it all!
No comments:
Post a Comment