Witnesses believed that Cain was incapacitated, but within half an hour his sight returned.[26] He refused morphia and against all advice returned to the front lines, deciding that he "wasn't wounded enough to stay where [he] was".[26] On the following day his eardrums burst from the constant firing and barrage, but he was content to stuff his ears with bandages and continue fighting.[2][26] On Sunday 24th, shortly after a truce to allow the evacuation of casualties, Cain was alerted to the approach of a Tiger tank. Together with a Royal Artillery gunner he raced for a 6 pounder anti-tank gun, manoeuvred it into position, fired and disabled the tank.[31] He wanted to continue using the gun, but the recoil mechanism was destroyed.[2]
By 25 September, the area occupied by the Lonsdale Force saw heavy fighting against self-propelled guns, flame thrower tanks, and infantry. There were no PIATs available to the force by now; instead Cain armed himself with a two inch mortar. Mortars are muzzle-loading indirect fire weapons but Cain was forced to fire it on an almost horizontal plane due to the enemy's proximity. His citation states that his leadership ensured that the South Staffordshire gave no ground and drove the enemy off in complete disorder.[32] By the end of the Battle, Cain had been reportedly responsible for the destruction or disabling of six tanks, four of which were Tigers, as well as a number of self-propelled guns.[2]
That night the Division began to withdraw in Operation Berlin. Many men shaved and blackened their faces and Cain removed a week's growth of beard from his face, drying himself on his dirty, blood-soaked Denison smock.[33] After successfully crossing the Rhine, this lead Brigadier 'Pip' Hicks to comment "there's one officer, at least, who's shaved".[34] Cain made sure all of his men were over the river by dawn, before he himself crossed in an old boat.[34]
