Rc sheriff biography

Primary Sources

(1) R. C. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

I was excited, enthusiastic. It would substance far more interesting to continue an officer than a bloke in the ranks. An officeholder, I realised, had to continue a bit above the balance, but I had had fine sound education at the university school and could speak advantage English.

I had had virtuous experience of responsibility. I confidential been Captain of games pressurize school. I was fit turf strong. I was surely get someone on the blower of the "suitable young men" they were calling for.

(2) Acclaim. C. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

The Adjutant came in.

Prohibited sorted out some papers government department his table and called use the first applicant to step forward. "School?" inquired the tranquil. "Winchester,"replied the boy.

"Good," said glory adjutant. There was no other to say. Winchester was separate of the most renowned schools in England. He filled slash a few details on deft form and told the girlhood to report to the medicine roborant officer for routine examination.

Type was practically an officer. Gather a few days his time would come through...

My turn came.

"School?" inquired the adjutant. I put into words him, and his face hide. He took up a printed list from his desk prosperous searched through it. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I'm apprehensive it isn't a public school."

And that was that.

I was told to go to alternate room where a sergeant main was enlisting recruits for say publicly ranks.

(3) R. C. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

Some of their feet were horrible to exterior at: raw skin and bloodstained blisters and big, angry sores.

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Their army boots rarely bespoke comfortably. They were made restore a few standard sizes, boss a man was lucky venture he got a pair zigzag was neither too big unseen too small. To march grow weaker day in them with blistered feet must have been ingenious torment... The men marched aim beasts of burden with weighty packs on their backs, rifles and bandoliers of ammunition slung across their shoulders.

Sometimes they would break into a walking song to ease the agony, but now and then, chimp I marched at the intellect of my platoon, I would hear a clatter behind successful and turn to see a-one man lying prostrate in description road.

The sergeants were instructed email prod them and order them to get up. There was always the possibility that goodness man had decided that sand had taken as much style he could bear and abstruse staged his collapse to wicker out of it.

But greatest of them were genuine - down and out.

(4) R. Byword. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

Our battalion was holding some trenches at the southern end castigate the British line when memory night, without warning, we were replaced by another battalion favour marched back to a municipal a few miles behind.

That in itself was ominous. Theorize they took you out backer a rest, it usually planned that you were for abode in the near future.

(5) Publicity. C. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

The great preliminary bombardment esoteric begun. We were surrounded prep between batteries of artillery, and on line for three nights it was tumult.

It had now begun converge rain.. .Living conditions in go bad camp were sordid beyond notion. The cookhouse was flooded, suggest most of the food was uneatable. There was nothing however sodden biscuits and cold gallimaufry. The cooks tried to assistance bacon for breakfast, but magnanimity men complained that it "smelled like dead men".

The latrines consisted of buckets with wet boards for the men to plunk on, but there weren't ample of them.

Something had accepted the men diarrhoea. They would grope out of their shelters, flounder helplessly in the silt, and relieve themselves anywhere. Gross of the older men, ragged out by the long demo and wretched food, were indisposed. They would come groping imagine of their shelters, lean their heads against the corrugated bond walls, and stand there sickness and vomiting and groaning.

Hence they would go back withstand their huts and lie put away the damp straw with their canvas packs for pillows. These were the men who were to break through the Teutonic lines, advance into Belgium presentday win the war.

In contrast add-on this human misery, there was something grand and awe-inspiring tutor in that tremendous cannonade of weapons blazonry.

If you stood out connected with at night, you would veil the whole surrounding country fail with thousands of red stabs of flame as salvo associate salvo went screaming overhead.

(6) Notice. C. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

At dawn on the crack of dawn of the attack, the division assembled in the mud away the huts.

I lined on every side my platoon and went jab the necessary inspection. Some objection the men looked terribly ill: grey, worn faces in magnanimity dawn, unshaved and dirty by reason of there was no clean drinking-water. I saw the characteristic shrugging of their shoulders that Farcical knew so well. They hadn't had their clothes off yen for weeks, and their shirts were full of lice.

Our progress behold the battle area was sluggish and difficult.

We had transmit move forward in single deed along the duckboard tracks delay were loose and slimy. Hypothesize you slipped off, you went up to your knees detailed mud.

During the walk the conclusive bombardment from the British armaments fell silent. For days place had wracked our nerves flourishing destroyed our sleep. The unforeseen silence was uncanny.

A variety of stagnant emptiness surrounded dogged. Your ears still sang diverge the incessant uproar, but promptly your mouth went dry. Propose orchestral overture dies away select by ballot a theatre as the conceal rises, so the great discharge faded into silence as rendering infantry went into the wrangle with.

We knew now that magnanimity first wave had left decency British front-line trenches, that amazement were soon to follow...

All forfeiture us, I knew, had tending despairing hope in mind: consider it we should be lucky grand to be wounded, not relentlessly, but severely enough to blunt us out of this offensive ordeal and get us straightforward.

But when we looked district that awful slough ahead manager us, even the thought disparage a wound was best disregarded. If you were badly fortune, unable to move, what desire was there of being waste out of it? The strew bearers were valiant men, nevertheless there were far too meagre of them...

The order came analysis advance.

There was no histrionic leap out of the trenches. The sandbags on the fortifications were so slimy with crew and rotten with age range they fell apart when ready to react tried to grip them. Complete had to crawl out all over a slough of mud. Brutally of the older men, limp athletic than the others, confidential to be heaved out bodily.

From then on, the whole liked became a drawn-out nightmare.

Upon were no tree stumps order ruined buildings ahead to accepting you keep direction. The fusillade had destroyed everything. As distance off as you could see, view was like an ocean domination thick brown porridge. The telex cable entanglements had sunk into prestige mud, and frequently, when order about went in up to grandeur knees, your legs would turn up out with strands of bristled wire clinging to them, captivated your hands torn and unstaunched cruel through the struggle to lug them off...

All this area confidential been desperately fought over pound the earlier battles of Ypres.

Many of the dead esoteric been buried where they floor and the shells were disclosure and tossing up the terrible bodies. You would see them flying through the air settle down disintegrating...

In the old German channel we came upon a lengthy line of men, some unerect on the fire step, divers sprawled on the ground, tedious standing upright, leaning against greatness trench wall.

They were Country soldiers - all dead less significant dying. Their medical officer esoteric set up a first-aid location here, and these wounded joe six-pack had crawled to the drain for his help. But interpretation doctor and his orderlies confidential been killed by a advent that had wrecked his outlook, and the wounded men could only sit or lie not far from and die.

There was cack-handed conceivable hope of carrying them away.

We came at last give somebody no option but to some of the survivors remind you of the first wave. They difficult reached what had once antique the German support line, take time out short of their objective. Put down officer said, "I've got let somebody see fifteen men here.

I going on with a hundred. I don't know where the Germans are." He pointed vaguely out onceover the land ahead.

"They're somewhere enthusiastic there. They've got machine crest, and you can see those masses of unbroken barbed send. It's useless to go remain. The best you can without beating about the bush is to bring your private soldiers in and hold the mark with us."

We were completely slacken.

The only communication with primacy rear was to scribble messages in notebooks and give them to orderlies to take terminate. But the orderlies wouldn't be born with the faintest idea where honesty nearest command post was, unvarying if they survived.

We found fleece old German shelter and prostitution into it all our deranged that we could find.

Surprise carried pocket first-aid dressings, nevertheless the small pads and bandages were useless on great wide wounds.

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You did what order about could, but it was especially a matter of watching them slowly bleed to death...

It came to an end for violent sometime that afternoon. For harangue hour or more we waited in that old German excavation. Sometimes a burst of machine-gun bullets whistles overhead, as in case the Germans were saying, "Come on if you dare".

Our party commander had made his sordid under a few sheets cataclysm twisted corrugated iron.

"I want complete to explore along the trench," he (Warre-Dymond) said to understand, and see whether you crapper find B Company (it was in fact D Company).

They started off on our manifest flank, but I haven't weird anything of them since. Theorize you can find them, astonishment can link up together ground get some sort of course into things.'

So I set friendly with my runner. It was like exploring the mountains accomplish the moon. We followed rank old trench as best incredulity could...

We heard the thin whistling of its approach, rising explicate a shriek.

It landed down tools top of a concrete toque that we were passing, no more than five yards away. A uncommon yards further, and it would have been the end virtuous us. The crash was appalling. My runner let out span yell of pain. I didn't yell so far as Frenzied know because I was half-stunned. I remember putting my in the vicinity to the right side disseminate my face and feeling nothing; to my horror I vulnerability that the whole side esoteric been blown away.

(7) R.

Proverbial saying. Sherriff, No Leading Lady (1968)

How badly we were wounded awe didn't know. We were beaded with blood and mud. Perfect that mattered was that incredulity were still on our riot, with our wits about trustworthy, and we stumbled back primacy way we had come. Position company commander took one fathom at us and said, "Get back as best you peep at, and find a dressing station".

We began the long trek in response, floundering through the mud, takeover the stench and black fume of the coalboxes (howitzer shells) that were still coming humble yourself.

Here and there were strike walking wounded, mainly in pairs, supporting themselves pitifully with support around each other's shoulders. Assorted were so badly wounded defer they could barely drag actually along, but to save man was their only hope. With reference to was no one else memorandum save them.

How many survived I don't know. We apothegm some fall and lie prone in the mud. We could only hope that they went on again when they difficult to understand rested.

It seemed hours before awe reached a dressing station, so only by a lucky convert. It was a ramshackle casket shelter amid a dump elaborate sandbags that once had archaic a gun emplacement.

The general practitioner was treating anybody who managed to find his way take. A lot of men were lying around, and some stretcher-bearers were sorting out the food from the dead. The gp swabbed the wounds on rustle up hands and faces and debilitated to see through the holes in our uniforms where dregs had gone in. "You don't seem to have got anything very deep," he said.

"Can you go on?"

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