At any rate, they had had a long march, and, as it turned out, were going up, most of them, to their death, I took great pleasure in hailing them cheerfully and telling them that it was all right, as the Canadians had held the line, and that the Germans were not going to get through.

One sergeant said, "You put a lot of braces in my tunic when you talk like that, Sir." Nothing is more wonderful than the way in which men under tense anxiety will respond to the slightest note of cheer.

This was the case all through the war.

The slightest word or suggestion would often turn a man from a feeling of powerless dejection into one of defiant determination.

These young Britishers whom I met that morning were a splendid type of men.