Australian Victoria Cross Recipient
Sergeant Percy Clyde Statton
Unit
40th Battalion
Born
21 October 1890 at Beaconsfield, Tasmania
Date of action
12 August 1918
Place
Proyart, France
Details
At about 6pm the advance of the 37th Battalion, on the left flank, was held up by machine-gun fire. A party of thirteen men sent against the first enemy gun was virtually wiped out. Statton supported the 37th’s attack with two Lewis guns. When he saw the attack fail he got three men to follow him and, working along the bank of the Chuignes road, got to within seventy-five metres of the strong point. Statton, revolver in hand, then led his men across the seventy-five metres of open ground into the German trench. The party disposed of two guns and their crews and, at the second gun, Statton shot the whole crew, except one, with his revolver. As he had expended all his ammunition he had to grab the remaining German’s rifle and use it to bayonet him. The small party then dashed towards the next two guns. The enemy retired only to be killed by the two Lewis guns Statton had sited earlier. Another enemy gun opened fire killing one member of the party and wounding another. Statton and the third man crawled back to their own lines as the 37th moved forward. That night he went out and brought in the wounded man and the body of the other.
Died
7 December 1959
Buried or Commemorated
Plaque of Remembrance, Cornelian Bay Crematorium, Hobart
Current location of the VC
Australian War Memorial