Over The Top

June 1915: With hot weather and a break in the bombardment, Alan goes swimming and Morgan experiments with fitting bombs with parachutes. The RFC are summoned to assist in a new initiative, and Gaylion gets a taste of the horrors of life in the trenches when his plane is forced down and he must wait overnight for the arrival of a replacement propellor. He observes the demoralising effect of trench warfare on an infantry battalion and on their commander, Captain Carey. Alan convinces Triggers to allow him to transport the spare propellor on the Avro. Triggers brings Gaylion back to base while Alan fits the replacement propellor and, with Carey's help, takes off in Gaylion's plane; as he is leaving, he sees Carey killed by shell fire. On return to base, he finds that Corporal Morgan has been killed by one of his own bombs. Triggers and Alan both blame themselves for Morgan's death. Remorse, and the thought of Morgan's family, lead Alan to write to Lorna, breaking off their engagement. Alan and Charles visit a brothel where they become very drunk and start a fight. Triggers receives a complaint from the authorities, but protects the men's identities to save them from punishment. The next day, Alan flies with Bravington and is hit and wounded in the leg by their "favourite Hun" - the German plane equipped with a machine gun.