Incident at Marcoing 3275 word short story
It was September 28, 1918 in the fighting had been exceptionally heavy that they. Private Tandey had been killing Germans throughout the day, as some wounded enemy limped into his gun sights he held his fire. The German was clearly wounded and though Tandey took aim he could not bring himself to shoot the wounded man. The wounded soldier nodded in gratitude and disappeared into the five. The incident at the French village of Marcoing was over quickly but one that the German soldier would never forget, and that Henry Tandey wouldn't recall for some 20 years. During the fighting on that day the English private would single-handedly destroy a German machine gun nest, and led a bayonet charge of best a far larger force. Private Henry Tandey was by anyone's account a true hero.
Henry Tandey was born in Leamington, Warwickshire, on August 30, 1891, son of former soldier James Tandey. After a difficult childhood, part of which was spent in an orphanage, he became a boiler attendant at a hotel in Leamington before enlisting in the British Army, joining the Green Howards Regiment in August 1910 and embarking on an adventurous military life. Private Tandey served with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa and Guernsey before the outbreak of war in 1914, he fought in the 1st Battle of Ypres in October 1914, two years later he was wounded in the leg during the Battle of the Somme and when discharged from a military hospital in England transferred to the 9th Battalion in Flanders and wounded at Passchendaele in November 1917.
Once out of hospital he joined the 12th Battalion in France in 1918, his unit was disbanded in July 1918 and he was attached to the 5th Duke of Wellington Regiment from 26th July to 4th October 1918. It was at this time Private Tandey was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for determined bravery at Vaulx Vraucourt on August 28, the Military Medal for heroism at Havrincourt on September 12th and Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery at Marcoing on 28th September 1918.
After the Great War he was posted to the 2nd Duke of Wellington Regiment in Gibraltar, Turkey and Egypt on 4th February 1921. He was discharged from the army on 5th January 1926 at the rank of Sergeant. Leaving the highest decorated private soldier in the British Army during the Great War, had he been a member of the officer class there is little doubt a knighthood would also have been one of his rewards.
Tandey was mentioned five times in dispatches and certainly earned his Victory Cross during the capture of the French village and crossing at Marcoing, his regiment held down by heavy machine gun fire Tandey crawled forward, located the machine gun nest and took it out.
Arriving at the crossing he braved heavy fire to place wooden planks over a gaping hole enabling troops to roll across and take the battle to the Germans, the day still not over he successfully led a bayonet charge against outnumbering enemy troops which helped bring hostilities to an end. On September 25, 1918 Tandey was engaged in some heavy fighting around the French village of Marcoing. As the battle drew to a close, a young German soldier stepped directly into his sights. The soldier, wounded, didn't bother to raise his rifle but simply raised his head to face his killer. For whatever reason, he later claimed because the German was wounded, Tandey didn't pull the trigger. The soldier nodded and scurried away.
It wasn't until twenty years later when Neville Chamberlain was meeting with Hitler that the story came out. Chamberlain noticed Hitler had in his possession a painting by an Italian, Fortunino Matania, which depicted the famous Tandey in the foreground, carrying a wounded soldier. Hitler then explained that he recognized Tandey as the soldier who, twenty years before, could have killed him, but for whatever reason, allowed him to live. Apparently Hitler had first seen Tandey's picture in the paper when his Victoria Cross had been announced. Chamberlain informed Tandey upon his return to England, much to the old soldier's shock.
