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[Page 77]
too had been buried at Lone Pine in a very heavy bombardment. He came back and was in the thick of the Pozieres fighting. I saw him the morning after the worst of it, coming out for a rest, looking very drawn, poor old chap, I thought. He did great work – he went back again for another turn that day of the next. The battalion did very well, and after nearly a fortnight they came out finally and went into camp in safer quarters. And that first night out of the battle, when the headquarters of the battalion was all sitting round its dugout, a chance shell came in and killed Charlie Manning and the doctor Plant and I think some others. I wouldnt publish the full details of this until after the wart as it is only an inducement to the enemy to shell these areas; but it was a very similar case to that of your son.
You have no doubt been told by General Holmes and others how they feel your sons death. He was one of the leading officers of a great fighting battalion and I only wish that he had lived to see them through the heavy fighting in which they have since been engaged. But the effect of brave mens presence does not cease with his regiment when he leaves the,. I have seen over and over again how the spirit which fine officers, such as he, breed in a battalion, lasts long after they have gone – and if the chief motive which enables them to hang on where a battalion which has had inferior officers cannot hang on. It is trivial to measure a mans work by what happens in his lifetime only; and I am very sure that the 20th Battalion as it exists today in in a large measure the creation of your son and of certain officers like him.
Yours very sincerely,
C.E.W. Bean