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Major-General Kippenberger once wrote: “.… In my opinion …. our best soldiers [were] the long-service battalion and company commanders, and especially thise who came up through the ranks. Completely dependable, brave by definition, there were no better soldiers. They did not fare particularly well for decorations; they recommended other people.

“Sometimes in the small hours they must have been afraid, with the fear that comes from experience often repeated and the knowledge that the pitcher can go too often to the well. But there were men commanding battalions or companies in 1918 who had been in the ranks at Gallipoli and in 1945 who had been riflemen in Greece. Their nerves were still good, at the least under firm control; they bore the burden of command, in the presence of death, until the very end.”

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