Note 2 — 1917 RANCOURT TO BOURLON WOOD

In those peaceful days when the Division was “fattening” for the fight, Greer had kept a sympathetic eye on Sassoon, who had gone down very sick some time before Greer came to command the 2nd Battalion, and was convalescing in the Entrenching Battalion where his heart was not. Greer, who had a keen eye for good officers, said of him: “He writes me pitiful letters protesting that he is now completely fit, and asking that he should be allowed to come up to this Battalion.... He is a stout-hearted savage, and a life-sentence with the Entrenching Battalion would certainly be an awful prospect.” So Sassoon was rescued, and Greer’s faith in his “stout-hearted savage” abundantly justified.