"Our men are simply wonderful," writes an officer in the
cavalry division; "they will go through anything."
The most surprising thing in the soldiers' letters is that they should
show such an extraordinary sense of the dramatic. They throb with
emotion. Take this account of the death of Captain Berners as written by
Corporal S. Haley, of the Brigade of Guards, in a letter published by
the _Star_:
"Captain Berners, of the Irish, was the life and soul of our lot. When
shells were bursting over our heads he would buck us up with his humor
about Brock's displays at the Palace. But when we got into close
quarters it was he who was in the thick of it. And didn't he fight! I
don't know how he got knocked over, but one of our fellows told me he
died a game 'un. He was one of the best of officers, and there is not a
Tommy who would not have gone under for him."
Among those who fell at Cambrai was Captain Clutterbuck, of the King's
Own (Lancaster) Regiment. He was killed while leading a bayonet charge.
"Just like Clutterbuck," wrote a wounded sergeant, describing the
officer's valor, and adding, "Lieutenant Steele-Perkins also died one of
the grandest deaths a British officer could wish for. He was lifted out
of the trenches wounded four times, but protested and crawled back again
till he was mortally wounded.
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