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The removal of our company commander had one immediate consequence for us; the interviewing of officers reporting their part in the battle fell to Major Gatehouse. He was a powerful, ambitious and not very intelligent regular. I loathed the prospect of having to explain the action; I did not feel very clear about it even after several talks with Quainton and Carter. To make matters worse there was a rumour, fortunately quashed in a day or so by the capture of Flesquières, that Highland troops had been fired at by a British officer from on top of his tank. I could not see how I could have made such a mistake because the troops who counter-attacked were German. We could not, all three, have been mistaken – nor yet the Highlanders who had witnessed the action. But anything seems possible in retrospect after battle. The evidence of German dead had not become available at the time.
I was called to see Gatehouse. I was far from being at ease as I stumbled through the interview. It was a long one and I was relieved that my account, which was substantially the same as that previously given by O'Toole and Forman when the men's account of the battle had been taken, seemed to reassure him. Then, right at the end my confidence was shaken; Gatehouse congratulated me on a ‘stout show’ and said he was going to recommend me for the Military Cross.
I could not easily say why I felt dismayed. Even the rumour about the ‘officer on the tank’ could hardly account for my feeling. Why on earth couldn't they leave me alone? But so it was. Quainton congratulated me and was surprised that I was annoyed; I said I wished I had never heard of tanks.
Quainton told me that he and Bayliss had talked before the action, wondering whether they should not tell the CO they wanted to
become conscientious objectors. He said he had spoken to Gull after the action and put his doubts to him. I said that in any case after action ‘they’ would say that it was ‘shell-shock’, and before action that he did not kn