Payne, H

H Payne

Rank: Rifleman

Regiment: 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Address: 232 Priory Road, Hastings

Other Info: Wounded on 14th September 1914 at the Battle of Aisne.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 10th October 1914 reads: “Rifleman H. Payne, 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifles, whose home is 232 Priory Road, Hastings, writing to the Editor of the ‘Observer’ from the Second Southern General Hospital, Southmead, Bristol, says :- “I am sending you an experience I had in the Battle of the Aisne, where I got wounded. On Sunday, 13th September, my Battalion, 2nd King’s Royal Rifle Corps, was detailed for outpost duty. We took up our position at dusk, and everything went well until daybreak, when we saw in front of us two lines of trenches occupied by Germans. .

Our Officer in charge of ‘C’ Company gave us the order to charge, leaving the other three Companies in support. We went for all we were worth shouting at the top of our voices, until we got up to the Germans, when they dropped their rifles and prayed for mercy.

We left 12 men in charge of them, 50 all told, while we went after the others in the other trench. As soon as we turned our backs on them they picked up their rifles and killed the twelve men we left in charge, and fired on us.

We at once turned back and had no mercy on them this time. We put our swords through them. While we were busy killed those in the first trench, the Germans in the other trench came up and fired on us, killing and wounding 50 of us, so another Company was sent up to help us but how they got on I do not know, as I was taken away wounded in the right arm to a hospital in a village close by, where we stopped for one day, as early the next morning the Germans had started shelling the place, so we had to leave it in a hurry. Just as the last man was taken out a shell dropped right in the centre of the roof setting fire to the straw we had been lying on. I hope to be able to go out and have another go at them in a month’s time.

Published: November 1914

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