Mexborough and Swinton Times December 8, 1917

Pte. Clement Allen. M.M.
West Riding Regiment

Private Allen, son of Mr and Mrs Harry Allen, of Main street, Mexboro’, been wounded in recent fighting in France. and is in a Canadian hospital with a bad fracture of the right toot.

He won the Military Medal last May at Bullecourt, and shortly after came home on leave. He returned to France, and was almost immediately taken ill with trench  fever having to spend  four months in hospital. His wounds were received shortly after returning to the firing line.

Before enlistment, Private Allen, who is 30 and married, was on the printing staff of the “Mexhoro* and Swinton Times”

Writing home, Pte. Allen says: “The attack was the sight of a lifetime.     I’ll never forget it the longest day I live. We started off last Thursday week, and marched all night; rested all Friday, and marched again all night. Then we had a couple of days’ rest and set off again, and then on, Tuesday morning we had to go into the wood ready for the fun                I can tell you, one cannot write w this hat it was like.

Our division made a name, for itself. We took all before us, taking hundreds upon hundreds of prisoners, also killing or wounding all who came in our way. All the first day of the battle we were continually fighting our way through snipers’ bullets, machine-gun fire and shrapnel. All day long the Germans came running to us with their hands up, shouting “Comrade!'” I could go on hello till Christmas telling you about it. There seemed to be miles upon miles of barbed wire, but the Tanks put that out of the way for us. The first night we had to dig ourselves-in, expecting a counter-attack.

At midnight Fritz threw up some of his flare lights on both sides of us. We had dug ourselves in. right in the middle of his positions, but we stuck it. Our battalion was not very strong, but reinforcements were on their way. The next morning rations were got up to us at a quarter to ten, and there was going to be a barrage at ten for us to go over and take another village and a wood, so before we had time to get the ration ,shared out our officer said: ‘Sorry, lads, but the barrage has started; get your stuff on.’ We gave Fritz a hiding he will never forget

I was wounded at about eleven o’clock, and crawled back on my hands and knees through mud and water until I reached a sunken road at 1-30. Here four Germans carried me into the village we had captured, and by the time we got there Fritz was shelling it very heavily, so that the Germans, terrified, dropped me in the road and ran.”

Pte. Allen was subsequently conveyed to hospital, and had the satisfaction of being marked for “Blighty.”