>One day, Roche’s unit was hit by a massive artillery strike. In the mountains they could not dig deep trenches, so the artillery shells devastated their ranks. In fact, everyone but Roche was killed by the bombardment. Albert took the rifles of his fallen comrades and prepared to sell his life dearly. As the Germans arrived, he gave them hell. Firing every rifle in the row, and throwing grenades down the slopes, he forced the Germans to abort the attack and retreated
Some of his stories were crazy! The guy was basically real life Rambo:
Captured and Interrogated
Albert volunteered regularly for reconnaissance missions, but on one occasion, he was captured with his wounded lieutenant. Isolated in a bunker during an interrogation, he managed to overwhelm and kill his interrogator, stealing his pistol. He returned to the French lines with 42 new prisoners while wearing his wounded lieutenant on his back.
miragen125 OP t1_jd7ubwl wrote
Reply to comment by miragen125 in TIL that a French Soldier called Albert Severin Roche, had personally captured 1,180 prisoners. He was called the "first soldier of France" by allied supreme commander Marechal Foch by miragen125
>One day, Roche’s unit was hit by a massive artillery strike. In the mountains they could not dig deep trenches, so the artillery shells devastated their ranks. In fact, everyone but Roche was killed by the bombardment. Albert took the rifles of his fallen comrades and prepared to sell his life dearly. As the Germans arrived, he gave them hell. Firing every rifle in the row, and throwing grenades down the slopes, he forced the Germans to abort the attack and retreated