Bravery in 1917

sir – Simon Heffer queries whether the plot of 1917 was credible, even as fiction (Review, February 8). Well, as Mark Twain observed: “Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.”

On December 1 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai in France, Lance Dafadar Gobind Singh (pictured) was serving with the 2nd Lancers (Gardner’s Horse) when his regiment was cut off and surrounded by the enemy. An urgent message had to be sent to the brigade headquarters giving the position of the regiment. The route was a 1½-mile stretch over open ground, under constant observation and enemy fire.

Singh volunteered and not only delivered the message but also took a return message and a subsequent one. He survived enemy machinegun fire directed at him on all three occasions, although his horses were killed underneath him every time, and he was forced to complete the journeys on foot.

In 1918 he was awarded the Victoria Cross “for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty”. I would hope this extraordinary act of valour provided the inspiration for Sam Mendes’s film. Major-general RV Searby

London SW6