speeches to the attacking brigades. However, on the day of the attack, and apparently at Haking's insistence, the heavy guns were again "lifted" from the German front line an hour before the 2pm attack, leaving them to be bombarded only by shrapnel – a tactic used by the Guards Brigade earlier in the battle. Haking ignored advice from Haig (on the telephone on 28 September) to suggest that this had been a bad idea, although in accordance with Army doctrine at the time Haig once again delegated the decision to Haking as the "man on the spot". Haking appears to have thought that High Explosive fire might disperse British gas (although gas was, this time, being used as an adjunct to the attack rather than a decisive weapon in itself), but he also wanted to give the Germans "a chance to run away". Stuart-Wortley, GOC 46th Division, was under Haking's command for the attack. He later complained that he and his troops had been "hurried into the trenches" with barely enough time "to become acquainted with the actual position". Haking overruled his wish to launch a careful step-by-step attack, telling him that he would "reach Fosse 8 without firing a shot". In Lloyd's description Haking was "seriously misleading the troops under his command" or else "simply ignorant". The attack went so badly that Lt-Col J. C. Wedgwood MP sent a report to the Prime Minister. After Loos The future Air Vice Marshal Philip Game, then serving as GSO1 to 46th Division, wrote frequently in letters to his wife (10, 11, 24 November, 8, 10, 20 December 1915) of how Haking interfered frequently with his planning. Game described Haking as "a vindictive bully" and "really impossible, untruthful, a bully and not to be trusted" (letters of December 1915 and April 1916). In May 1916 Haking complained that a unit had "dirt on their clothes" – they had in fact just come out of the trenches. Haking claimed in May 1916 that no division could be considered a fighting unit until they had carried out a successful trench raid. In John Bourne's view "Haking had already begun to achieve a reputation as something of a loose cannon … he did more than anyone in the BEF to encourage trench raids and "the spirit of the bayonet"". Haking launched what John Bourne describes as "an unnecessary and unsuccessful attack" against a German position