Post by anthony on Mar 26, 2008 10:12:33 GMT
Captain Percy Herbert Cherry, 26th Australian Infantry Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on 26 March 1917 at Lagnicourt, France. However, he was involved in an incident of personal contact between enemy soldiers that the Australian official historian Charles Bean described as not frequent on the Western Front. On 5 August 1916, during the Australian fight for Pozieres Heights, Cherry and an officer who was leading the German attack against Cherry’s position were shooting at one another from neighbouring shell-holes. Both officers fired simultaneously, the German hitting Cherry’s helmet and being mortally wounded himself. Cherry went over to his opponent and was given a package of letters that he promised to post. The German’s dying words were, “And so it ends”.