I wasn’t very happy to see him either, but there it is. He has number five platoon and I have number six. We’re stuck with each other. From what I’ve managed to winkle out of Hollis, I gather that Devereux has only been here a month, and this is his first stint at the front. Apparently, his illustrious uncle managed to get him a cushy job on the staff that kept him out of harm’s way until now. This begs the question: what is he doing here, where people are trying to kill him, when he could be in a nice safe office ten miles behind the front? Devereux says he volunteered, but everybody else thinks he was sent. He’ll need some frontline experience if he wants to get ahead on the staff, so he’s been sent here to get it. Better still would be a medal or a mention in dispatches, but the chances of either of those are very slim indeed. It wouldn’t be fair to call him a coward – even after what I saw when we were shelled that night.
