Charles Anthony Posted August 18, 2006 Report Posted August 18, 2006 At the age of 16, Private Herbert Burden lied that he was two years older so he could join the Northumberland Fusiliers and fight in the war.Ten months later he was court martialled for desertion after leaving his post to comfort a recently-bereaved friend stationed nearby, having seen many other friends killed at the Battle of Bellwarde Ridge. The officers considering Pte Burden's case heard his unit had been issued orders to make for the front just before he went missing. By the time he faced the firing squad on 21 July 1915, Pte Burden was 17 - still too young to even officially be in his regiment. It was Pte Burden's case which led John Hipkin, a retired Newcastle teacher, to set up the Shot at Dawn campaign in the early 1990s. BBC NewsSgt Stones, of the Durham Light Infantry, who had earned four bravery testimonials, was shot in 1917 for "shamefully casting away his rifle". In fact, Sgt Stones had thrown his rifle across a trench into the path of advancing Germans as he escaped an ambush and was off to warn his fellow troops on the orders of his wounded lieutenant. His widow was initially told that he had been killed in action, only to be informed later: "We don't give pensions to cowards' widows." Eighty years after his death, Wear Valley council, which includes Sgt Stones' home town of Crook in County Durham, agreed to add his name to its war memorial. The GuardianI wonder if these soldiers and our Canadian soldiers even knew why there was a Great War after all? Quote We do not have time for a meeting of the flat earth society. << Où sont mes amis ? Ils sont ici, ils sont ici... >>
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