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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.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":20,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/birdsong-comradeship-in-this-extract-first-day-of-the-battle-of-the-somme/623138/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/birdsong-comradeship-in-this-extract-first-day-of-the-battle-of-the-somme/623138.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dhado","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-20",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":14},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Who are Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw in this extract?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They are miners working in the tunnels at the Front who witness the first day of the Battle of the Somme.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What event do the men observe in the opening of the extract?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They watch units coming up and moving into an engulfing storm, describing the enemy’s positions and the slaughter caused by the bombardment.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does comradeship develop in the extract?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It begins with disbelief and mutual physical support—clutching arms—then deepens into shared silence and emotional collapse as the men grieve together.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},623138,1792467824,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":19,"category_name":20,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":14,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":14,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":24,"preview_page_count":4},5909893218464,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Unseen extract 3: Birdsong   \nRead 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.  \nSample question  \nRead the extract carefully. Explore the significance of comradeship in this extract.  \nRemember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Faulks shapes meanings.  \nExtract  \nJack Firebrace stood with Arthur Shaw on raised ground near what they had called One Tree Hill, watching. They expected a swift passage, almost unopposed.  \nJack 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.  \nTheir 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.  \nThe excess of it made them clutch each other’s arms in disbelief.‘They can’t let this go on,’ said Jack, ‘they can’t.’  \nShaw 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.  \nPlease God, let it stop, thought Jack. Please let them send no more men into this hurricane.  \nThe padre, Horrocks, came and stood with them. He crossed himself and tried to comfort them with words and prayers.  \nJack turned his face away from what he saw, and he felt something dying in him as he turned.  \nShaw has begun to weep. He held his miner’s hands to the sides of his head and  \nthe 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.  \nSoon 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.  \nHorrocks 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.  \nAcknowledgement of copyright-holders and publishers  \n© From Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Published by Hutchinson. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.","cbCaivre1WAmMWcU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivre1WAmMWcU","pdf",131710,"English","# Sample question\n## Extract\n## Copyright acknowledgement","[{\"question\":\"Who are Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw in this extract?\",\"answer\":\"They are miners working in the tunnels at the Front who witness the first day of the Battle of the Somme.\"},{\"question\":\"What event do the men observe in the opening of the extract?\",\"answer\":\"They watch units coming up and moving into an engulfing storm, describing the enemy’s positions and the slaughter caused by the bombardment.\"},{\"question\":\"How does comradeship develop in the extract?\",\"answer\":\"It begins with disbelief and mutual physical support—clutching arms—then deepens into shared silence and emotional collapse as the men grieve together.\"}]","Birdsong - Comradeship in this extract - First day of the Battle of the Somme | PDF"]