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Auction: 8010 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 227

A Great War Group of Three to Private P. Furlong, Royal Irish Regiment, Who Was One of Approximately Three Hundred Mostly Wounded Men of the 2nd Battalion Taken Prisoner of War After Their Gallant Stand at Le Pilly, 20.10.1914 1914 Star, with Bar loose (4344 Pte. P. Furlong. R.Ir.Regt.); British War and Victory Medals (4344 Pte. P. Furlong R. Ir. Regt.), very fine or better (3) Estimate £ 180-220 4344 Private Patrick Furlong, served during the Great War with the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment on the Western Front from 7.10.1914 (although MIC shows no mention of a Bar to 1914 Star, recipient appears to meet criteria); 11 days after landing in France the 2nd Battalion were in action at Le Pilly during the 1st battle of Ypres, the Official History of the War gives the following for 20.10.1914, ´´In the early morning of the 20th, before the orders issued for the retirement of the 2/Royal Irish reached the battalion, the Germans discovered that it was isolated and after heavy bombardment, sent Battalions of the 16th and 56th Regiments (14th Division) to attack and surround Le Pilly. After a fight lasting until 3pm some 300 survivors of the Royal Irish, nearly all wounded were forced to surrender. The battalion commander, Major E.H.E. Daniell, D.S.O. was amongst the killed. The total losses of the battalion in killed and prisoners in the two days fighting were 17 officers and 561 other ranks. Thirty other ranks, only, escaped from Le Pilly to the British Lines´´; a statement provided by a German Company Commander from the 56th adds further incite into the brutal conditions of the attack, ´´the artillery at Fournes had got the range of the trenches and practically poured shrapnel on them - doing fearful execution. The Irish Regiment was in a hopeless predicament..... we eventually closed with your regiment but their losses had been appalling - about 500 killed. We took 302 prisoners but the large majority were wounded, some very severely, barely 100 could walk. I saw a good looking senior officer... sitting in the trench dead´´; Furlong was one of the wounded taken prisoner, he was repatriated in December 1918.

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£360