history · 18 January 1945 · 79 years ago
Royal Scots Fusilier Dennis Donnini became the youngest man to win a Victoria Cross during WW2. In an action at Roermond, the Netherlands the 19-years-old Fusilier (only 4-ft 10-in tall), despite having been hit on the head by a ricocheting bullet bravely charged a German position and destroyed it with grenades, being wounded again in the process. Later to allow his comrades to outflank a second German position, he stood in the open blazing away with a Bren gun until he was killed by a chance bullet that hit a grenade he was about to throw, blowing him up. Fusilier Donnini was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his valour. Donnini's brother had died of war wounds in 1944 and a second sibling has been a prisoner of war since Dunkirk.
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