Birdsong - Comradeship in this extract - First day of the Battle of the Somme

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by dhado

Unseen extract 3 from Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks presents Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw, miners serving in the tunnels at the Front, witnessing the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The passage follows their shocked response to unanticipated slaughter after the early crater blast, showing silent awe turning to mutual clutching, prayerful attempts at consolation by Horrocks, and finally breakdown under the barrage. Comradeship emerges through shared observation, physical closeness, and collective silence as violence overwhelms individual resolve.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Sample question

Extract

Unseen extract 3: Birdsong Read the extract carefully. It is taken from Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, first published in 1993, a novel which tells the story of a British man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I. In this extract, Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw, miners in the tunnels at the Front, observe the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Sample question Read the extract carefully. Explore the significance of comradeship in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Faulks shapes meanings. Extract Jack Firebrace stood with Arthur Shaw on raised ground near what they had called One Tree Hill, watching. They expected a swift passage, almost unopposed. Jack was muttering, Shaw saying nothing at all. They saw the Scots coming up out of their burrows like raving women in their skirts, dying in ripples across the yellowish-brown soil. They saw the steady tread of the Hampshires as though they had willingly embarked on a slow-motion dance from which they were content not to return. They saw men from every corner walking, powerless, into an engulfing storm. Their own contribution to the day, the vast hole that had been blown at twenty past seven, had given the enemy ten minutes in which to take their positions at leisure. By the crater they saw young men dying in quantities that they had not dreamed possible. They had not fired a shot. The excess of it made them clutch each other’s arms in disbelief.‘They can’t let this go on,’ said Jack, ‘they can’t.’ Shaw stood with his mouth open. He was unmoved by violence, hardened to the mutilation he had seen and inflicted, but what he was watching here was something of a different order. Please God, let it stop, thought Jack. Please let them send no more men into this hurricane. The padre, Horrocks, came and stood with them. He crossed himself and tried to comfort them with words and prayers. Jack turned his face away from what he saw, and he felt something dying in him as he turned. Shaw has begun to weep. He held his miner’s hands to the sides of his head and the tears coursed down his face. ‘Boys, boys,’ he kept saying.‘Oh my poor boys.’Horrocks was trembling. ‘This is half of England. What are we going to do?’ he stammered. Soon they all fell silent. There was an eruption from the trench below and another wave went up into the pitted moonlike landscape, perhaps Essex or Duke of Wellington’s, it was impossible to see. They made no more than ten yards before they began to waver, single men at first picked out, knocked spinning, then more going as they reached the barrage; then, when the machine guns found them, they rippled, like corn through which the wind is passing. Jack thought of meat, the smell of it. Horrocks pulled the silver cross from his chest and hurled it from him. His old reflex still persisting, he fell to his knees, but he did not pray. He stayed kneeling with his palms spread out on the ground, then lowered his head and covered it with his hands. Jack knew what had died in him. Acknowledgement of copyright-holders and publishers © From Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Published by Hutchinson. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

FAQs

Who are Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw in this extract?

They are miners working in the tunnels at the Front who witness the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

What event do the men observe in the opening of the extract?

They watch units coming up and moving into an engulfing storm, describing the enemy’s positions and the slaughter caused by the bombardment.

How does comradeship develop in the extract?

It begins with disbelief and mutual physical support—clutching arms—then deepens into shared silence and emotional collapse as the men grieve together.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by dhado