held on with tenacity to captured posts against superior forces and under heavy shell fire. An instance of the good work done is afforded by the behaviour of the crew of one of the Stokes mortars knocked out early in the fight. Although shaken by the shelling to which they had been exposed and discouraged by the loss of their gun, these men took to their rifles and fought gallantly throughout the action, killing many of the enemy and taking several prisoners.
The hero of the attack on Pontruet, however, was a subaltern of the 1/5th Leicesters, Lieutenant J. C. Barrett. He was the leader of a party attacking the strong and stoutly-defended work known as Forgan's Trench. In spite of an intense fire from the machine guns and riflemen defending the trench, he led a party of men against it, and, although wounded in the advance to the attack, he succeeded in reaching the trench and sprang into it, himself disposing of two machine guns and inflicting many casualties. During the mêlée which followed he was again severely wounded, but managed to climb out of the trench with the object of finding out his own exact position and locating the enemy. This he succeeded in doing, and, despite loss of blood and the exhaustion consequent on his wounds, gave detailed orders to his men, directing them to cut their way back to their battalion, from which they had become isolated. The party managed to rejoin their comrades, but during the retreat Lieutenant Barrett, who had refused offers of help for himself, was again wounded, this time so seriously that he could not move, and was then carried back by his men. It was undoubtedly due to Lieutenant Barrett's splendid example and good leadership that any of the party managed to return alive, and he was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in this action.
