| Other Info | During the Battle of St. Quentin, on the night of the 19th/20th March 1918, the 2/8th Battalion lost nineteen men gassed, including 2nd Lieutenant R. H. Hunt. He had a curious experience. He was in the front line when orders came to evacuate it, on account of the gas discharge. On receiving the order he pushed rapidly along to warn all his men; but they had already received the order and the trenches were empty. The bombardment started before he could leave the line and he was caught in the gas cloud. Confused and half-stifled, he turned left instead of right along the road from Fayet to St. Quentin. A German sentry on the road threw a bomb at him. He answered with his pistol, rushed past and eventually found himself in the deserted suburbs of St. Quentin. He lay quiet all the following day, and on the next night succeeded in regaining our lines, just in time to be sent back to hospital before the German attack.
Interestingly after the war he named his home St. Quentin. |
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