Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 20, 2013 14:50:30 GMT 12
Here's a wonderful article from the Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 5, 6 January 1940, Page 6. Starkey deserves more recognition. This would make the basis for a great film!
WHITE FEATHER
FOR WRONG MAN.
STARKIE COMPLAINS
HERO OF 'PASSPORT TO HELL'
HAS THIRTY-SEVEN WOUNDS
James Douglas Stark, bomber in the Fifth Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the Great War, brave enough to have been recommended for the' Victoria Cross, reckless enough to have served imprisonment, tough enough to have escaped from Le Havre prison, wounded in 37 places, has received the white feather!
"I wouldn't have minded only one, but this is the second to come anonymously during the past few days, and lam sick of it," he said to-day. "If I could find out who sent them."
"Starkie" is a name that during the war became famous throughout the Army. His exploits and reckless courage made him one of the most dangerous of the devil-may-care spirits that roamed in "no man's land." He was a friend of the famous Dick Travel's, V.C., and was, himself, recommended on six occasions for decorations.
His career, both before, during and after the war, is almost incredible. His father was a Delaware Indian and his mother was born in Madrid and of Spanish blood.
"Some of the newspapers in the South were arguing about which school I attended," he said. "As a matter of fact, I attended each of the five schools in Invercargill and was expelled from all of them. Then I pushed a policeman through a window and they sent me to Borstal."
Between that period and the time when, still a boy, he joined the Army for active service, Starkie's rebel spirit ran him into constant trouble. Even the manner of his joining up was extraordinary. As he modestly puts it himself, at the time he was having a spot of bother with the law and it was not easy to join the Army, and he found it necessary to take the place of a drunk soldier on the troopship. How the soldier became drunk and was induced to part with his papers was another story.
V.C. Recommendation.
After being twice wounded in Egypt and Gallipoli, Starkie went to France, and it was there that he achieved his reputation as a fierce and courageous individual fighter. It was on September 15, 1916, that he was recommended for the V.C. The story is told graphically by Robin Hyde in "Passport to Hell."
It is the story of a raid by the Otagos, when Starkie carried 20 of the wounded in on his back. "There was a German machine gun with a crew of three that in the rising dawn made merry across No Man's Land, telling the story of a raid that got cut to pieces before it reached the lines," says Robin Hyde's account. "But as the gun sang there was a shout overhead and a terrible figure crashed down upon it. The figure wore a tunic torn open to the waist, clotted and dyed and hideous with blood. Blood dripped from its nose and open mouth, blood stained its nightmare club—a great axe handle with an iron cog nailed to one end.
"It was neither white man nor black. Under the blacking smeared on facc and throat the skin shone red-brown. So much the three German gunners had time to see before the figure uttered a madman a shriek, and with a madman's strength leapt down on them. The axe handle swung twice then the butt end was thrust into the third gunner's face as he turned to run. The three lay in the pit.
"Good Work, Starkie!"
"The figure groped forward with great brown hands, swung the machine gun round until its muzzle pointed directly at the gunners. Then the rattle of bullets began. The terrible figure met an officer from the Otago lines as it dragged the machine gun towards the British wire. The officer, a major, stopped and said: 'Good work, Starkie!'"
Referring to this incident, Starkie said that the V.C. for which he was recommended never got through to him, As Robin Hyde put it, "It was not considered the thing at headquarters for a soldier to win his country's highest honour while on probation for a proud and picturesque crime sheet." Actually a term of 20 years' imprisonment was suspended.
Held Up Attack.
It was about a year later when he was recommended by the Black Watch for the D.C.M. In Goose Alley the Black Watch had only a handful of men left after a sweeping German attack, Starkie and a friend in arms, Arthur Kelliher, crawled into an isolated trench and throughout a hectic day held up the German attack. A party of six men took turns in feeding them with, bombs, these being thrown into the isolated trench, caught, and lobbed into the German lines with disastrous results.
There was another picturesque incident at Fleur Baix. The officer in charge was worried because the level of the water in the trench showed no sign of decreasing. Starkie volunteered to investigate, and at 6 a.m. on a foggy morning he crept into No Man's Land. He sat on the parapet and shot the German officer in charge, took his boots as a souvenir, and threw a bomb into the mechanism of the pump that was flooding the British trench.
Later the Rifle Brigade went over and cleaned out the trench, taking 23 prisoners and capturing six machine guns.
There was another occasion in the second Somme when Starkie and a companion rushed to a dump of 181b shells that had been set on fire by a German shell. It was, as the officer who made the recommendation said, sheer lunacy. But the two plunged into the dump and cleared a path through, putting in a break that saved the bulk of the shells and saved many lives.
With Dick Travers.
Dick Travers and Starkie worked together in many of their forays into enemy territory. They would meet at some spot in no man's land for a friendly tot of rum, then one turned right and the other left, and the hunt was on.
One of Starkie's most famous exploits was at Mailly-Maillet, when he appeared in no man's land when he was supposed to be serving a term of two years in Le Havre prison for assaulting a corporal. A sniper using explosive bullets had killed eight men, but he was stalked by the New Zealander and bombed 600 yards from the British lines. But first he put a bullet through Starkie's chest.
Another memorable occasion was when Starkie unofficially attached himself to a raiding party, going out ahead and cleaning up the objective himself, and waiting in a shell hole with 11 dead, six prisoners and two captured machine-guns until the raiding party came up. 'All I got out of that was six bottles of schnappes," be said.
In hospital with 22 wounds when the Armistice was signed—this is the man who 22 years later is presented with the white feather!
WHITE FEATHER
FOR WRONG MAN.
STARKIE COMPLAINS
HERO OF 'PASSPORT TO HELL'
HAS THIRTY-SEVEN WOUNDS
James Douglas Stark, bomber in the Fifth Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the Great War, brave enough to have been recommended for the' Victoria Cross, reckless enough to have served imprisonment, tough enough to have escaped from Le Havre prison, wounded in 37 places, has received the white feather!
"I wouldn't have minded only one, but this is the second to come anonymously during the past few days, and lam sick of it," he said to-day. "If I could find out who sent them."
"Starkie" is a name that during the war became famous throughout the Army. His exploits and reckless courage made him one of the most dangerous of the devil-may-care spirits that roamed in "no man's land." He was a friend of the famous Dick Travel's, V.C., and was, himself, recommended on six occasions for decorations.
His career, both before, during and after the war, is almost incredible. His father was a Delaware Indian and his mother was born in Madrid and of Spanish blood.
"Some of the newspapers in the South were arguing about which school I attended," he said. "As a matter of fact, I attended each of the five schools in Invercargill and was expelled from all of them. Then I pushed a policeman through a window and they sent me to Borstal."
Between that period and the time when, still a boy, he joined the Army for active service, Starkie's rebel spirit ran him into constant trouble. Even the manner of his joining up was extraordinary. As he modestly puts it himself, at the time he was having a spot of bother with the law and it was not easy to join the Army, and he found it necessary to take the place of a drunk soldier on the troopship. How the soldier became drunk and was induced to part with his papers was another story.
V.C. Recommendation.
After being twice wounded in Egypt and Gallipoli, Starkie went to France, and it was there that he achieved his reputation as a fierce and courageous individual fighter. It was on September 15, 1916, that he was recommended for the V.C. The story is told graphically by Robin Hyde in "Passport to Hell."
It is the story of a raid by the Otagos, when Starkie carried 20 of the wounded in on his back. "There was a German machine gun with a crew of three that in the rising dawn made merry across No Man's Land, telling the story of a raid that got cut to pieces before it reached the lines," says Robin Hyde's account. "But as the gun sang there was a shout overhead and a terrible figure crashed down upon it. The figure wore a tunic torn open to the waist, clotted and dyed and hideous with blood. Blood dripped from its nose and open mouth, blood stained its nightmare club—a great axe handle with an iron cog nailed to one end.
"It was neither white man nor black. Under the blacking smeared on facc and throat the skin shone red-brown. So much the three German gunners had time to see before the figure uttered a madman a shriek, and with a madman's strength leapt down on them. The axe handle swung twice then the butt end was thrust into the third gunner's face as he turned to run. The three lay in the pit.
"Good Work, Starkie!"
"The figure groped forward with great brown hands, swung the machine gun round until its muzzle pointed directly at the gunners. Then the rattle of bullets began. The terrible figure met an officer from the Otago lines as it dragged the machine gun towards the British wire. The officer, a major, stopped and said: 'Good work, Starkie!'"
Referring to this incident, Starkie said that the V.C. for which he was recommended never got through to him, As Robin Hyde put it, "It was not considered the thing at headquarters for a soldier to win his country's highest honour while on probation for a proud and picturesque crime sheet." Actually a term of 20 years' imprisonment was suspended.
Held Up Attack.
It was about a year later when he was recommended by the Black Watch for the D.C.M. In Goose Alley the Black Watch had only a handful of men left after a sweeping German attack, Starkie and a friend in arms, Arthur Kelliher, crawled into an isolated trench and throughout a hectic day held up the German attack. A party of six men took turns in feeding them with, bombs, these being thrown into the isolated trench, caught, and lobbed into the German lines with disastrous results.
There was another picturesque incident at Fleur Baix. The officer in charge was worried because the level of the water in the trench showed no sign of decreasing. Starkie volunteered to investigate, and at 6 a.m. on a foggy morning he crept into No Man's Land. He sat on the parapet and shot the German officer in charge, took his boots as a souvenir, and threw a bomb into the mechanism of the pump that was flooding the British trench.
Later the Rifle Brigade went over and cleaned out the trench, taking 23 prisoners and capturing six machine guns.
There was another occasion in the second Somme when Starkie and a companion rushed to a dump of 181b shells that had been set on fire by a German shell. It was, as the officer who made the recommendation said, sheer lunacy. But the two plunged into the dump and cleared a path through, putting in a break that saved the bulk of the shells and saved many lives.
With Dick Travers.
Dick Travers and Starkie worked together in many of their forays into enemy territory. They would meet at some spot in no man's land for a friendly tot of rum, then one turned right and the other left, and the hunt was on.
One of Starkie's most famous exploits was at Mailly-Maillet, when he appeared in no man's land when he was supposed to be serving a term of two years in Le Havre prison for assaulting a corporal. A sniper using explosive bullets had killed eight men, but he was stalked by the New Zealander and bombed 600 yards from the British lines. But first he put a bullet through Starkie's chest.
Another memorable occasion was when Starkie unofficially attached himself to a raiding party, going out ahead and cleaning up the objective himself, and waiting in a shell hole with 11 dead, six prisoners and two captured machine-guns until the raiding party came up. 'All I got out of that was six bottles of schnappes," be said.
In hospital with 22 wounds when the Armistice was signed—this is the man who 22 years later is presented with the white feather!
