Full medal write up
Michael enlisted on 7th September 1914 in 10th Durham Light Infantry and was posted to France on 10th June 1915. He transferred soon afterwards into the 15th Battalion. On the evening of 5th May 1917, the battalion returned to their barricades on the Hindenburg Line, near Fontaine-les-Croisilles, France. Only one hundred yards separated the British and German positions but the terrible fighting of the preceding days had died down. Snipers and machine gunners were, however, still active and any movement attracted deadly fire. Then about 2 o’clock the next afternoon, 6th May 1917, a sentry noticed movement in a shell hole about forty yards from the German barricade. A wounded British soldier was desperately waving an empty water bottle.
Any attempt to help this soldier in daylight would result in almost certain death for the rescuers. Michael Heaviside, however, said that he was going to try. Grabbing water and a first aid bag, this thirty-six year old stretcher bearer scrambled over the barricade and out into no-man’s-land. Immediately, he came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the German positions and was forced to throw himself to the ground. He then began to crawl sixty yards across the broken ground from shell hole to shell hole to where the wounded soldier was sheltering……….
Postcard sized Approx 13.7 x 8.6 cm. The above taken from the fine vconline website:
http://www.vconline.org.uk/michael-w-heaviside-vc/4586954510.html
A scarce original period VC recipient VC photo postcard.