Fond de Braux with Hill 253 (right) Pvt Jack Barkley - MoH
Fond de Braux with Hill 253 (right) Pvt Jack Barkley - MoH Oct 7th: 4/Reg. 3/Div attacked from Hill 250 towards Bois de Cunel but were repulsed. Barkley was ordered to push forward to be able to observe German activity in the Fond de Braux. As day broke he saw the Germans preparing tom attack but his phone line was cut. He crawled into a disabled French Renault tank with an abandoned Maxim light machine gun and proceeded to fire into the unsuspecting Germans who were passing in front of him. The Germans located his position and attacked him "The fellow with the Maxim used his head. He started firing straight at the barrel of my gun.... I whirled the turret toward him. He was a brave man. He stood up in his shell hole and with his head and shoulders exposed, he tried to beat me to getting a burst home.The odds were all on me. I swung the sights just below his gun and fired. I was sorry. But it had to be one of us". He was then attacked by a German 77mm field gun which hit the tank: the gunners ceased firing and when Barkley had recovered he returned fire and silenced the gun. Finally an American patrol reached him and he left the tank just before it received a direct hit from a heavy gun
