y under the enemy's bomb-fire, but Cotter, with only
one leg, and bleeding from both arms, steadied his comrades, who were
beginning to have the wind-up, as they say, issued orders, controlled
the fire, and then altered dispositions to meet the attack. It was
repulsed after two hours' fighting, and only then did Cotter allow
his wounds to be bandaged. From the dug--out where he lay while the
bombardment still continued he called out cheery words to the men, until
he was carried down, fourteen hours later. He received the V. C., but
died of his wounds.

Officers and men vied with one another, yet not for honor or reward,
round these craters of the Hohenzollern, and in the mud, and the fumes
of shells, and rain-swept darkness, and all the black horror of such a
time and place, sometimes in groups and sometimes quite alone, did acts
of supreme valor. When all the men in one of these infernal craters were
dead or wounded Lieut. Lea Smith, of the Buffs, ran forward with a Lewis
gun, helped by Private Bradley, and served it during a fierce attack by
German bombers until it jammed.

Then he left the gun and took to bombing, and that single figure of his,
flinging grenades like an overarm bowler, kept the enemy at bay until
reinforcements reached him.

Another officer of the Buff's--by name Smeltzer--withdrew his platoon
under heavy fire, and, although he was wounded, fought his way back
slowly to prevent the enemy from following up. The men were proud of
his gallantry, but when he was asked what he had done he could think of
nothing except that "when the Boches began shelling I got into a dugout,
and when they stopped I came out again."

There were many men like that who did amazing things and, in the English
way, said nothing of them. Of that modesty was Capt. Augrere Dawson, of
the West Kents, who did not bother much about a bullet he met on his way
to a crater, though it traveled through his chest to his shoulder-blade.
He had it dressed, and then went back to lead his men, and remained with
them until the German night attack was repulsed. He was again wounded,
this time in the thigh, but did not trouble the stretcher-men (they
had a lot to do on the night of March 18th and 19th), and trudged back
alone.

It was valor that was paid for by flesh and blood. The honors gained by
the 12th Division in a few months of trench warfare--one V. C.,
sixteen D. S. C.'s, forty-five Military Crosses, thirty-four Military
Medals--we