Now It Can Be Told · Chapter
XVII explained
The narrator recalls dining with General Sir Neville Macready, the adjutant-general, and hearing his story about being left behind during the chaotic retreat from Mons.
What happens
The narrator recalls dining with General Sir Neville Macready, the adjutant-general, and hearing his story about being left behind during the chaotic retreat from Mons. The chapter illustrates the grim humor and stoic resilience of soldiers, as Macready casually returns to a joke after learning of a friend's death.
Themes in this chapter
Futility of War
The chaos and disorganization of the retreat from Mons, with G.H.Q. forgetting its own adjutant-general, underscores the absurdity and mismanagement of war.
Comradeship and Human Spirit
Macready's ability to laugh and carry on after reading a friend's name on the casualty list exemplifies the soldier's way of coping through dark humor and resilience.
Characters to notice
- Sir Neville Macready
Adjutant-general who tells the story of being forgotten during the retreat from Mons and displays a soldier's stoicism upon reading a casualty list.
- Colonel Childs
Hotheaded officer who senses danger in the quiet village and discovers that G.H.Q. has moved on, alerting Macready.
- Sir John French
Commander-in-Chief who had already left his château, leaving others behind.
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator who dines with Macready and recounts the anecdote.
Key passages
“It was not, to tell the truth, that 'orderly' retreat which is described in secondhand accounts. There were times when it was a wild stampede from the tightening loop of a German advance, with lorries and motorcycles and transport wagons going helter-skelter among civilian refugees and mixed battalions and stragglers from every unit walking, footsore, in small groups.”
The retreat from Mons was far from the orderly withdrawal often portrayed; it was a chaotic scramble with vehicles and soldiers mixed among fleeing civilians.
Contrasts official narratives with the reality of the retreat.
“The day's casualty list was brought into the adjutant-general one evening when I was dining in his mess. The orderly put it down by the side of his plate, and he interrupted a funny story to glance down the columns of names. 'Du Maurier has been killed … I'm sorry.' He put down the paper beside his plate again and continued his story, and we all laughed heartily at the end of the anecdote.”
While dining, Macready paused a joke to note a friend's death on the casualty list, then resumed the story, and everyone laughed.
Illustrates the soldier's stoic acceptance of death and the use of humor as a coping mechanism.