Sir

Sir
by Lawrence Wang

based in World War 1.

Sir, are you sure sir. No sir, I do not doubt your wisdom sir, I know of your record sir, and may I say that it is an impressive record sir, but, sir, the men are tired, sir, tired and hungry and low on morale, sir. We haven’t received any new clothing, sir, the men are cold sir, it is very bad weather and I am not sure if the men are ready for another charge, sir.

Yes, sir, the men will do your orders sir, but I beg you to reconsider, sir. We are both very well entrenched, sir, yes, very well-entrenched, and it would be very risky to attack them now, sir, especially now, in the daylight. Yes, sir, to win we must be bold, yes sir, you have said so many times. Sir. Yes, sir. I realize that we will not get anywhere by sitting in the trenches, sir. Yes, sir. But shouldn’t we at least wait for the new shipment of soldiers, sir?

Sir?

Sir. I am not disobeying you, sir. No, sir. I will do as you order, sir, but sir. No, sir, but please listen. Sir, just listen for one moment, please, sir.

You are sending men over a distance of almost a mile, sir, a wide open land that has been targeted by several enemy artillery pieces, sir, it is a killing ground. It is no man’s land. You can see the craters, sir, those are from the countless bombardments that we have endured in our other fruitless attacks. Yes, sir, fruitless. Gaining ten metres, a hundred metres, does it really even matter, sir, because we lose dozens of men each time sir. The men, sir, will have to cross this wasteland, sir, and it is a wasteland, with all the remnants of men and equipment and shrapnel, with the very ground churned to thick mud, have you ever tried running through this, sir, it will slow the men down, sir, slow the men down. With artillery raining upon them and shrapnel tearing through their guts sir, have you ever seen such a sight sir, you would never wish to.

Then. Then, if our men can get through that sir, if the men are not all one with the earth sir, lines and lines of barbed wire, wires with thorns and spikes that stick into the flesh and gut men like pigs, sir, pigs, wires that sometimes break and sometimes not. The men, sir, have to cross this barbed wire, while fortified bunkers with machine guns, sir, yes, machine guns, mow them down. Have you seen a machine gun at work, sir, really at work? Not at a test facility sir, the real thing. It is horrifying. The air turns red, sir, red with the men’s blood. Their bodies dance as hundreds of rounds, sir, hundreds of bullets rip them into meaty shreds.

If the men can even make it to the first trench, by God sir, that would be a miracle on its own. Whatever men are left have to face fresh troops, sir, troops that have been just waiting in the trenches, sir, and we would be lucky if we had managed to even kill a dozen with our artillery, sir. That remnant of once-proud men have to face men armed with rifle and bayonet and shovel, I see you laugh, sir, and it is no laughing matter. I have seen men’s heads beaten in, their brains open to the air and skull fragmented for metres around, that is how deadly a shovel can be, sir. They have to face a trench full of a foe who has been untouched, sir, untouched, and who has been waiting for this moment. And those men, sir, those men you sent out to recover a few hundred metres of dead land, those men with their families, with fathers and mothers and wives, and children, sir, children, they will be slaughtered like animals.

If those men are lucky, they will die with the opening salvo.

Sir, do you really understand what you are asking the men to do? Do you really…

Sir. I am not questioning your judgement, sir, I only ask that you understand…

Sir.

Sir.

Very well, sir. The attack will be launched at 0600 tomorrow morning. Yes, sir.

I only pray to God that He give mercy on your soul, sir.