“The Scots Fusiliers were on the right of the sector and held the railway embankments south of Verbrandenmolen. On the evening of May 27 orders were received that the position must be held at all costs for the next 24 hours, to enable the rest of the B.E.F. to get away. The message was passed to the Battalion and I received a heartening reply from Tod—that the Scots Fusiliers would do all that was required of them. [The Public Relations Department of the War Office gives Colonel Tod’s reply in the more dramatic form: ‘Tell Brigade I’m not going a foot back.’] I again went up to see Tod during the night, leaving him about 3 a.m. on May 28.
“When I saw him he was with the Battalion H.Q. in a farm, and had with him Morrison, Arkwright, Knight and, I think, Thomson [Major P. D. Morrison, Major A. S. B. Arkwright, Lieutenant P. A. Knight, who was the Signal Officer, and Lieutenant I. S. Thomson]. We discussed that night what might be done with patrols.... He obtained contact with the units on his flanks and seemed quite cheerful about the situation. Very heavy enemy shelling began about 4 a.m. and at 6 a.m. heavy infantry attacks developed. The situation for the rest of the morning was very obscure and it was almost impossible to get information even by runners and liaison officers....Very few stragglers got back and I am sure that what happened was that they fought it out to the bitter end.”
