JOHN LYNN'S VALOUR - WIELTJE , NEAR YPRES, BELGIUM 2ND MAY 1915 At the end of April 1915 the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers replaced the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment along the front line north of Wieltje, about half way between Ypres and St Julienne, the village which the British had failed to recapture in the early days of the second Battle of Ypres. The battalion was equipped with four machine — guns. One, with Private John Lynn in charge, was sited on a parapet slightly to the west of the Wieltje-St Julienne Road. At 4p.m.on 2nd May 1915, the Germans released gas before advancing. John Lynn, although almost overcome by the fumes, handled his machine gun with great effect against the attacking troops, moving it higher up the parapet and securing it to a tree stump so he could fire more effectively. This helped check any further enemy advance. He was eventually overcome by the gas and had to be lifted dying from the parapet. Eighteen officers and 431 other ranks of the 2nd Battalion had to be treated for the after-effects of the gas to which they had been exposed that day. Sadly John Lynn died the following day from his exposure to the gas in a hospital near St Julienne in Belgium.