Albert (POP) Hunter was a pre war soldier who after landing in F & F served with 15 Brigade RFA, Arriving in france on the 19/8/1914 he was soon to take part in his first and last battle of the war. Albert fought at Le Cateau and on the 26/8/1914 was captured by the germans, Albert was sent to Doberitz POW Camp until on the 23/1/1918 was taken to Holland where he stayed until the end of the war. at this engagment his Brigade was wiped out. In accounts of the battle its states that "  the 15. Brigade RFA for the most part had to be content to mask its guns with corn-sheaves" this shows how little cover there was. Also described is how the Brigade came under intense fire "the concentration of a superior number of German guns, probably the artillery of the 7th and 8th Divisions, and very soon of the 5th Division also, upon the exposed batteries of the 15. and XXVIII. Brigades R.F.A. caused considerable losses : salvos of shells crashed down on gun after gun in succession, but the gunners stood to their work, and the supply of ammunition never failed."

'The BC (Captain Gillman) observed from a position in the open cornfield on the spur to the west of his Battery [123rd Battery RFA, attached to Fifth Division on the right of Le Cateau defensive line]. It was during this phase that he noticed the German infantry pressing forward on his left front and only about a quarter of a mile away, so he went down into the Battery to warn the section commanders of what was impending and to make the necessary arrangements for meeting the attack.

The left section was run round to receive the infantry with a point-blank burst of fire directly it showed. The German infantry,
however, was driven back by an advance made by our infantry and 123 [Battery] was not called upon to intervene.'

'It was clear that on the Right Flank and Right Centre of the Fifth Division the enemy had gained sufficient artillery preponderance to warrant him in risking another immediate overwhelming attack with his infantry. To meet it there were on the ground only a comparatively few guns left in action and the ammunition supply in the exposed batteries was almost exhausted. But the Germans remembered only too well the rapid fire of the British Infantry on August 23 and 24 and
they made no attempt to rush the position [pure conjecture but this sets the scene for the next quote].'

'The German Infantry, in possession of Le Cateau and the big spur above the railway station, were steadily pouring round the open right flank of XV RFA. The Germans were now determined to assault, and masses of their infantry suddenly appeared out of the sunken road behind the right flank of the line held by the 2/Suffolk Regiment. The occupants of these trenches... and RFA [who may have been fighting as infantry, it is not clear from the text] promptly opened rapid fire on the mass and did so much execution that, instead of rushing the small British force, the German infantry halted and returned the fire...'

'The end of 52 [Battery] RFA [, the only surviving battery from XV on the right, the rest having been hitched up and got away] must now be given. As this phase [of the German attack on the right] wore on the fire of the Battery became more and more intermittent, single guns firing at long intervals. The Battery was in its death-throes. Through the devoted gallantry of the wounded the two flank guns were able to maintain a desultory fire. Finally, at 2.45 pm the end came with startling suddeness and the flank was overwhelmed and rolled up from the right and right rear. It was impossible to fire into the
surging crowd of friends and foes and the OP of the dying battery was over-run by the Germans 26th Regiment, 7th Division, IV Corps'.

This letter was sent to Alberts family after his death in 1962