ABSTRACT
When Sassoon left France for England on 18 July 1918 it was for the last time, though he did not know it. Determined not to desert his men, as he saw it, he was already planning to return to them even before he left. But as the weeks passed his resolution weakened. Exhausted in both body and mind, he could not no longer struggle against the odds. From the moment he heard that Sassoon was wounded and back in London, he had been determined to see him again, but it was not until the third week of August that he was able to do so. In spite of Scott Moncrieff’s efforts at the War Office, Owen had failed to get the instructorship which would have kept him safely in England and by 9 August was on a list for France.
