A Great War ‘German Spring offensive’ M.C. group of three awarded to Lieutenant C. P. Friend, Wiltshire Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R.; British War and Victory Medals (2.Lieut. C. P. Friend) extremely fine (3) £600-800

M.C. London Gazette 16 September 1918:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. As Company Commander he kept his men under a fine state of control in the face of great odds. He organised his line of defence with the greatest skill and by his fine example kept up the spirit of his company, which suffered heavy casualties and held the enemy in check at a critical moment.’

Charles Percy Friend joined the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on 19 December 1916, initially serving with the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Wiltshire Regiment. He joined the 6th (Service) Battalion in France on 7 February 1917, which was heavily involved in the German offensive of March 1918. The battalion War Diary states:

‘The stand made by the Battalion at Morches from 4pm on 22nd March to 5pm on 23rd and all that it meant is a glorious episode in the history of the Wiltshire Regiment. It is a heroic record of self-sacrifice in stemming the victorious rush of a superior enemy and a model lesson of a rearguard fight. The subsequent retreat to Fremincourt, through Bapaume to Grevillers and thence to Bayencourt was only one endless stubborn fight. Suffice it to say that only one officer, one sergeant and 18 ORs came out of the struggle and that officer had also been wounded.’

Friend, who had been wounded in the knee in October 1917, received a gunshot wound in the abdomen during this action on 23 March 1918, and was invalided to England on 29 March. Sold with a printed copy of the War Diary of the 6th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment July 1915-June 1919.