But to make matters worse the usual comfort a father has in these situations - that is, the notion that his son gave his life gloriously for king and country - was sullied by the fact that my brother had perished in a particularly infamous manoeuvre. Not only was it alleged that the manoeuvre had been a most un-British attack on civilian Boer settlements, overwhelming evidence emerged that it had been irresponsibly commanded with several floutings of elementary military precautions, so that the men who had died - my brother among them - had died quite needlessly.
the manoeuvre caused something of an uproar at the time
In view of what I am about to relate it would not be proper of me to identify the manoeuvre any more precisely though you may well guess which one I am alluding to if I say that it caused something of an uproar at the time adding significantly to the controversy the conflict as a whole was attracting.
But to make matters worse the usual comfort a father has in these situations - that is, the notion that his son gave his life gloriously for king and country - was sullied by the fact that my brother had perished in a particularly infamous manoeuvre. Not only was it alleged that the manoeuvre had been a most un-British attack on civilian Boer settlements, overwhelming evidence emerged that it had been irresponsibly commanded with several floutings of elementary military precautions, so that the men who had died - my brother among them - had died quite needlessly.</s>In view of what I am about to relate it would not be proper of me to identify the manoeuvre any more precisely though you may well guess which one I am alluding to if I say that it caused something of an uproar at the time adding significantly to the controversy the conflict as a whole was attracting.</s>the manoeuvre caused something of an uproar at the time