1. Action Abroad, January – July 1916
Read the 5 letters in this Unit and summarise their contents. Write a brief, formal account of Douglas’s action and experiences during this six month period.
Give the meaning of these 4 extracts in your own words. Then select the extract you like best and give your reasons for your answer. Use the separate worksheet (opens in new window)
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Source 1, paragraph 2, line 1 |
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‘… I was constrained to consign my dinner to the deep.’ |
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Source 3, paragraph 2, line 1 |
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‘ … but neglecting to touch wood…’ |
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Source 4, paragraph 3, lines 2-3 |
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‘So Mesopotamia has got a good supply of me.’ |
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Source 5, paragraph 1, lines 3-4 |
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‘… so when I feel a little stronger I shall have to get busy pulling strings.’ |
Compare and evaluate the passages below taken from Sources 2 and 3. Which passage do you prefer and why? Consider the writer’s use of language, sentence structure and punctuation in forming your opinion.
| Source 2, (paragraph 2) |
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… the next day – 26th [Feb], I went to bomb the Turkish aerodrome a little journey of 30 or 40 miles into the enemy’s country! Setting my bombsight at 4000 over our aerodrome, I went over the lines at 8000 but on throttling down my engine to descend to 4000 again, the throttle froze shut!!! I made for Kut for all I was worth & passed over the besieging force at 2000 ft getting 3 bullet holes. One bullet passed just between the detonators of two bombs & strafed part of the bomb frame. Just then my throttle unfroze & I climbed back to 4000 & dropped 4 bombs on the enemy’s aerodrome. The first strafed a tent & the other 3 made a little circle round one machine but I’m afraid didn’t do much damage. The next 4 days I spent in bed with bad diarrhoea. |
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Source 3, (paragraphs 3-4) |
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It was a food trip and at that time I had beaten everybody else by doing the trip to Kut and back in 42 min[ute]s. I was trying to beat my own record and made a straight line for Kut passing over the lines at just 6000ft when – bang – and a shrapnel burst 10ft right of my tail. Within half a minute there was another in the same place. As this was the best shooting before or since that the Turks have done, I put on full speed and vacated that unhealthy region.
I had hardly recovered from the cardiac stricture resulting from this excitement, when having dropped my food, I passed over another machine on the same errand and about 20ft lower. I waved to him and he to me, then chancing to look up there was Fritz in a brand new Fokker, pointing straight at me; scarcely 30 yds away on my right. With a wild jerk I turned and dived underneath him escaping the two rounds he loosed off at me. By the time I had turned round, extracted my revolver from its case and loaded it, he was 3 miles away having about 50 knots more than I. |
Read this letter. Give three quotes from it that convey Douglas’s mood and state of mind at this time. Write a short paragraph on how his letter makes you feel?
Douglas achieves a sense of calm and tranquillity in this particular letter? Use quotations from the letter to support your comments.
1. Words are not the only form of communication. Look at Douglas’s drawings in Unit 1: Source 3 and in Unit 2: Source 5. Do you think they are effective or not? Give reasons for your answer.
2. Write and illustrate a letter to a friend. Use your own drawings or cut out images or pictures from magazines etc to do this. Here are some suggested topics:
- A school sports fixture
- An embarrassing experience
- A shopping trip
- An adventurous weekend away
7. Censorship
Source 1, paragraph 1, line 1
‘The censor allows me to say so little …’
Having read Douglas’s letters in Unit 2, do you agree with this statement? How much knowledge and information is given in his letters?
1. Work in groups to discuss this issue.
2. Hold a class debate on the motion:
This House would abolish censorship in wartime.
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