The BEF staff, who had not rehearsed their roles, performed poorly over the next few days. Various eyewitnesses reported that Wilson was one of the calmer members of GHQ, but he was concerned at Murray's medical unfitness and French's apparent inability to grasp the situation. Wilson opposed Smith-Dorrien's decision to stand and fight at Le Cateau (26 August). However, when told by Smith-Dorrien – Wilson had had to travel to the nearest village, his gaiters still unfastened, to use a public telephone – that it would not be possible to break off and fall back until nightfall, by his own account he wished him luck and congratulated him for his cheerful tone. Smith-Dorrien's slightly different recollection was that Wilson had warned that he risked being encircled like the French at Sedan in 1870.