In Memoriam

When the men leave the tunnel, they find Lüneburg—who looks “betrayed”—and the Kommandant waiting for them. Gaunt, Devi, Pritchard, and MacCorkindale are taken to the Kommandant’s office, who takes all their supplies. He demands to know who gave Gaunt the identification papers, but Gaunt refuses to tell him.

The men are sent to solitary confinement as punishment. As they walk, Lüneburg angrily tells Gaunt that he is being sent to the front as punishment. Gaunt feels guilty and tries to apologize, but he vows not to think of Lüneburg again after he is gone, unable to stand the thought of another person dying.

Gaunt, Pritchard, and Devi are put in the same room in solitary. They talk about the number of times Devi has tried to escape and failed. He already has a new plan, hoping to jump from the train when they are next transported.

Over the next two weeks, they continue to discuss their escape plan. They become annoyed with each other occasionally but still support each other as they struggle with nightmares and fear over those left at the front.

The day after they leave confinement, they are put on a train together. Gaunt, Devi, and Pritchard enlist the help of the other men, who begin moving around the train to distract the armed guard while Gaunt lowers the train window.

Gaunt, Devi, and Pritchard make it off the train and begin running, heading west. They find a sign and, based on their estimates, are about 100 miles from the Dutch border.

For two weeks, the men walk at night while resting during the day. They occasionally meet German civilians, but Gaunt’s German helps them talk their way out of suspicion. Devi develops bad blisters on his feet, forcing him to lean on the other men throughout much of the journey.

Finally, they near the Dutch border. They are confronted by a German soldier outside of a hut full of other German soldiers. When they fail to produce identification papers, the German soldier pulls his gun on them. He yells for the other soldiers, who begin coming out of the tent. After signaling to Gaunt, Devi runs at the men, yelling and distracting them, allowing Gaunt and Pritchard to run into the trees.

In June 1916, Ellwood, Hayes, and their battalion arrive in a village near the Somme. They can hear gunfire in the distance, but the men are excited by the reprieve of being in a new village.

Ellwood is accosted by several of his former classmates from Preshute, including Pritchard, Roseveare, and Lantham. They joyously put him on their shoulders and excitedly ask him questions, inviting him and Hayes to dinner. Although dinner is uncomfortable—largely because Hayes does not fit in, with more worn clothing and not having been able to afford boarding school—Ellwood assures them that Hayes is his friend.

That night, Ellwood and Hayes share a room. Hayes admits his surprise that Ellwood referred to him as his friend. The two then sit in silence, trying not to think of the “horror” of the battle that awaits them.

On June 29, 1916, the men prepare for the Battle at the Somme. Ellwood writes a letter home to his mother, telling her that he will be fine, but in reality, he has “become used to the idea that he w[ill] die” (273), hoping only to die without seeing any more of his friends die first. However, as the men get to the front, they are informed that the battle is postponed for another two days.

That night, two of the soldiers die by suicide, having felt the fear of certain death in the buildup to the battle. Ellwood cannot find it in himself to feel sympathy for them, instead feeling as though they were “selfish” by adding to the despair in the camps by dying by suicide.

On July 1, the soldiers are told that they will move out of the trenches at 7:30 am. As the men line up, Ellwood notes that the bulk of them are drunk but decides that it is probably for the better. Hayes hugs him. He checks his watch and then blows a whistle signaling the soldiers to start the march.

Gaunt and Pritchard run through the trees for hours until they no longer hear gunshots. They settle down and search their surroundings, eventually spotting the stream that borders the Netherlands. Watching the stream, they see a soldier with a rifle walking along it, patrolling it. They decide that they have to make a run for it and sprint past the guard, into the river. 

They can hear gunshots as earth explodes around them. As they climb up the other side of the stream, they turn and see that the sentry has lowered his rifle, as they have officially made it across the Dutch border.

Behind the German lines, Ernst Grisar—Gaunt’s cousin—realizes that the entirety of No Man’s Land has gone silent at 7:20 am. He wonders what the Allied armies are planning, telling his men to ready the machine guns. A few minutes later, soldiers begin to pour out of the Allied trenches. Most of them get stuck by the barbwire they have placed, with those that make it through being shot immediately by Ernst’s men. He watches as an endless train of soldiers leaves the trenches only to be shot down, followed by even more. He begins to think of the men as “ants,” trying to comprehend how so many people would so willingly go into No Man’s Land without any hope of surviving.

After innumerable soldiers die, Ernst sees that there is some progress being made by the Allies. He checks his bayonet, realizing that it may come to hand-to-hand combat. At that moment, a British officer falls into the German trench, covered in blood and “utterly wild” (284), aiming his bayonet at all the German soldiers. 

As his men go to attack the officer, Ernst recognizes Ellwood from when Gaunt used to visit him in Munich. He tells his men to stop as Ellwood blinks at him in recognition. Ellwood tells Ernst that he will need to be killed because he refuses to surrender.

Gaunt and Pritchard are still not certain that they made it across the border, but they decide to knock on a cottage door to find out. A man tells them that they are in the Netherlands, and his wife eagerly invites them in and feeds them after she realizes that they are Allied officers. After they finish, the farmer tells them that they have to be turned over to the police. Gaunt and Pritchard initially protest but then realize they don’t have a choice.

When Gaunt and Pritchard get to the police station, they immediately collapse on cots without talking to anyone. The next day, they are fed and approached by a guard, who informs them that they are going to be taken to the train station and then to Hengelo.

At the station, Gaunt insists on using the phone. He gets into contact with the British Embassy, where Roseveare’s father is a diplomat. The guard begrudgingly escorts them on a train to Amsterdam, where Mr. Roseveare meets them.

Gaunt and Pritchard are eager to get back to the front, despite Mr. Roseveare’s insistence that they take time to rest. He tells them about the Battle of the Somme, where they are estimating that nearly 60,000 British soldiers died on the first day. However, at their request, Mr. Roseveare books them passage on a boat to England the following day.

As Ellwood stands and faces Ernst, he sees half of Ernst’s face blown off. He looks up and sees Roseveare standing at the top of the trench, his gun aimed at the Germans. He pulls Ellwood out of the trench, and they run to the relative safety of a crater. With the war raging around them, Roseveare begs Ellwood to turn and go back to their own trenches. Ellwood insists on following orders and pushing forward.

Mr. Roseveare takes Gaunt and Pritchard out to dinner in the hotel. Gaunt is excited to be able to get a steak, potatoes, and real butter. As they eat, they tell Mr. Roseveare about their escape. He changes the subject to his sons he lost in the war and the uncertainty surrounding his youngest, who is with Ellwood in battle. Pritchard comments on how difficult the war can be for those at home. Gaunt thinks about all his men who are still on the front lines and realizes that he can no longer eat.

Roseveare is injured in No Man’s Land and falls to the ground. Hesitating only briefly, Ellwood lifts him up and carries him back to their own trenches. Roseveare begs him to stay, but Ellwood ignores him. Instead, he repeatedly runs out in between the trenches, grabs injured Allied soldiers, and carries them back to the safety of the trenches. In the process, he takes shrapnel to the face, gets covered in mud and gore, and realizes that he cannot see out of one eye. 

On his last trip, he drops off an injured soldier and turns to go back out of the trench. He is stopped by a doctor who tells him that he has lost half of his face.

Gaunt wakes up from nightmares of killing Harkins in the middle of the night. His screams have already awoken Pritchard. The two decide to go for a walk through Amsterdam, staying out until morning.

The two board a boat to cross the English Channel. In the cabin, they find an array of newspapers, with copies of The Times listing the dead and injured at the Somme. Gaunt is too afraid to look for Ellwood’s name, so Pritchard searches for him while Gaunt looks for the name of Pritchard’s brother, Bertie. Pritchard tells Gaunt that Ellwood was injured, which gives Gaunt some hope that he has survived this long. However, Gaunt finds Bertie’s name among the deceased and breaks the news to Pritchard, who struggles to contain his emotion.

Maud visits Ellwood in the hospital, but he is rude and dismissive. He thinks that she is no longer interested in him because of how bad he will look when the bandages on his face come off. He still asks her to marry him, telling her that he is wealthy and will hide the ruined half of his face from her. However, she is adamant that he does not truly want to marry her. She tells him that she plans to go to Berlin to university. As she leaves, she tells him that she will be back on her next day off, but he tells her not to “bother”—and she doesn’t return.

Ellwood’s mother also visits, but he pretends to be asleep each time. He can hear her crying, which makes him “unspeakably angry” (315). He holds contempt for everyone in the hospital ward—the nurses who try to heal him, the other injured soldiers who praise him, and his friend Loring, who comes to visit.

He wakes up one afternoon to find Gaunt standing over his bed. He assumes that it is Gaunt’s ghost, which he sees regularly, so he calls for the nurse. However, when the nurse confirms that Gaunt is real, Ellwood feels “a thousand things at once” as Gaunt smiles down at him (317).