'By jove, they could fight... Germans are an awfully sporty crowd' says WWI hero of battle

FACING 100 Germans armed with machine guns, Captain Reginald Haine led six assaults over 30 hours as his unit captured a vital position and took 50 prisoners.

- BY JAMES PODESTA

Had the formidable enemy counter attacks succeeded, his garrison would have been surrounded and annihilated during the Battle of Arras in the First World War.

Yet in a letter home, Capt Haine who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his outstanding bravery simply called it a “ding-dong battle” and added of his adversaries: “By jove, they could fight - ‘an awfully sporty crowd.”

Two years after receiving Britain’s highest gallantry award, he was awarded the Military Cross for a hilltop attack in Dakka, India, before going on to serve in the later. On one occasion he survived when two comrades either side of him were shot dead. He told his parents in a letter: “I had a very good luck myself.

“One sniper dented my tin hat, and shrapnel also dented it, but I came through untouched.”