is important; and never give your position away. Well, it took us a long time to learn that, we were green, so they had an enormous advantage...they had been fighting in China for two years. They were really tough professional soldiers, and constantly when we stopped them, the encirclement would begin. You see, we didn't have enough troops, so when we stopped them cold somewhere, within a hour, they would start the encirclement around the flanks, and the next thing you know, machine-gun bullets would come, ploughing into your back. And again and again, they almost closed the circle and trapped us, trapped my platoon and my company". Wallis who was accustomed to Europe, where people generally automatically obeyed their social superiors, and found the Canadians who were the product of a more egalitarian society difficult to deal with. Wallis complained in 1947 that "when he had to issue orders to an officer of the R.R.C, the order and its suitability or otherwise (as they saw it) would be discussed in a sort of 'soviet' by any present at the time. If the Canadians thought the action ordered a good thing it would be obeyed. If those present did not care for it, in all probability it would not be carried out". Wallis's relations with Home were difficult as Home maintained the losses taken by the Royal Rifles made Wallis's orders to counterattack and retake the Wong Nei Chong Gap almost impossible. The most ferocious action for the Royal Rifles occurred on Christmas Day when Wallis ordered the Royal Rifles to launch a counterattack to retake the northern parts of Stanley village. Home protested against this order, saying it was well known that Maltby was going to surrender later the same day, but the attack went ahead anyway as it felt necessary to maintain the honor of the British empire. When the order to came to attack on Stanley on Christmas Day, McDonell remembered that his men were "...completely exhausted, covered with blood, dirt, wounds; on Christmas Day, I woke them up from the first sleep they'd had inside, behind a wall. We been pulled out for a day to get some rest. I called them together and said, 'At one o'clock the company is going to attack Stanley village below us', in broad daylight, no support, no artillery, no heavy machine-guns, nothing...Now they looked at me, as if I