Patch tried to spare a German attacker

Harry Patch's five-man Lewis-gun team passed empty pan magazines back for reloading and returned loaded ones to the gun. Prolonged firing made the weapon difficult to hold, and at one point mixed British and German troops prevented the team from firing without hitting their own men. When a German soldier advanced with a bayonet, Patch shot him in the shoulder, but he kept coming towards the gun. Patch feared that mud could disable the weapon if the attacker kicked it over. Remembering the dying British soldier's call for his mother, he chose shots above the ankle and knee to bring the attacker down. Patch imagined the man surviving captivity and returning to his family, although he never established his fate and wondered whether the wounds had cost him a limb.