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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 501

Pair: Private H. Allan, 5th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, late Irish Regiment, who was killed during fierce hand-to-hand fighting at the Battle of Terdenois in July 1918

British War and Victory Medals (S-24069 Pte. H. Allan. Seaforth.), nearly very fine (2)


Hugh Allen served with the 5th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders as the Allies took the fight to the Germans following the failure of the German Spring Offensive. On 27 July 1918, after a particularly successful artillery barrage which covered 100 metres in 8 minutes, the 5th Battalion left their front line trenches and secured their first objective by 8.45am; hostile guns maintained fire for an hour, but no contact was made with the German infantry who were in full retreat and had withdrawn to a new line. Chaumuzy was captured by 3 p.m. and the French divisions reached as far as Oulchy-le-Chateau.

The next morning the advance continued with the French XI Corps capturing the Butte de Chalmont and the British 15th Division taking Buzancy. However, the Germans rallied and reserves of the 5th and 50th Divisions advanced on the village from the east; fierce hand-to-hand fighting through the narrow sloping streets ensued, and by evening the Scots had made a fighting retreat back to where they had started. Outflanked and outnumbered, the Highlanders were driven from the village and only got clear of German artillery fire to find enemy machine-gunners in their rear.

'As an example of the grim nature of the battle, two bodies were found in one street locked together, one of a German officer with a revolver in his hand, the other of his victim, a Scottish soldier clutching his rifle with bayonet which he had run through his opponent's body' (Francis W. Halsey, The Literary Digest History of the World War (1919), refers).

Hugh Allan died on 28 July 1918 and is commemorated at Soissons Memorial on the Aisne.

For further details, see:
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/the-battles-of-the-marne-1918


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Sold for
£65