The most extraordinary moments in war can be described in the plainest language, language that allows us to visualise what's happening. Reading these words whilst standing on the spot where it happened is one of the reasons I love battlefield tours.

Tom Roberts wrote of his experiences in April 1915 in Ypres.

“It was wonderful, we were only about 120 of us with the Captain, another sub & myself, along with about 400 Terriers who had arrived in this country on Thursday & yet we held about 6,000 Germans through the night.”

There is pride & almost disbelief that courage luck & skill could combine to get him through the night. Once more allied troops barred the way into Ypres. Roberts’ words remind us that history often turns on fragile margins: a few hundred men, the stubborn refusal to yield.