A teenager soldier in the First World War braved enemy fire to rescue his horse from a lonely death on the battlefield.
The selfless __6__earned a Military Medal for George Turner, the young man in question, but his heroics were known to few__7__his family.
Now his story is being shared as the imminent release of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse adaptation throws light__8__the real-life stories behind the fiction.
The Hollywood blockbuster is based on Michael Morpurgo’s_9__book about a country boy named Albert who follows his__10__horse, Joey, to war.
Like Albert, George Turner was just 16 when he joined the army in 1914. The apprentice carpenter from Hereford knew__11__about caring for horses but was__12__a job as a driver transporting ammunition and__13___by horse with the 56th (London) Division Royal Artillery.
Armed with a copy of the Blue Cross Driver and Gunners Handbook, he taught himself to look after his charges and developed a(n)__14__with his horse, Dolly. Turner__15__the Battle of the Somme but not all of his horses__16__to the end of the war.
As his division crosses a field, a German observation balloon picked up the glint of sunlight on the horse brasses, alerting the enemies__17__their presence.
The convoy came under heavy shelling and one of the horses suffered severe injuries.
Turner took the ammunition from the injured animal,__18__it on to his own back and led the horse to a field out of the__19__of the enemy.
He continued on to the front line to deliver the supplies,__20__he asked an officer to accompany him back to the field to put the badly wounded horse out of its misery. The officer made it half way across the field__21__was forced to turn back as shells rained down.
But Turner pushed on, risking his own life to reach the injured horse and__22__it back to the trenches, where the officer_23__ended its suffering. Turner’s heroics were witnessed by a French soldier, who reported it to Turner’s__24__officer. The teenager was rewarded with the Military Medal for bravery in battle.
His granddaughter, Ruth Turner, said:” This act of courage shows how deep the bond was__25__my grandfather and his horses. Very few survived the shelling that day but, despite great danger to himself, he refused to leave his horse to die a painful, lonely death.”