Exclusive
Passiondale
Hunted by snipers and wartime romps: how director Sam Mendes’ hero grandad inspired WWI hit 1917
HE is the film director who gave us Skyfall, Road To Perdition and American Beauty – but Sam Mendes’ latest story is really close to his heart.
War epic 1917, whose trailer has been watched nearly 12million times in a week, is based on his grandad’s heroic tales from the trenches.
7
The movie, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth and Richard Madden, is being predicted to match the success of 2017’s Dunkirk, which took more than £400million at the box office.
It is inspired by stories told to Sam as a child by Alfred Mendes, who won the Military Medal for bravery during World War One.
Today The Sun can reveal the full extent of his grandad’s courage — and wartime sex sessions — which are detailed in a fascinating autobiography.
Sam, 54, said of the film: “It’s the story of a messenger, which lodged with me as a child. Obviously I’ve enlarged it significantly but it has that at its core.”
7
That core is the incredible real-life story of Alfred who, aged 20, risked death from snipers, machine guns and shells as he ran messages for two days through the mud-filled craters near Ypres, in Belgium.
In his screenplay, James Bond director Mendes tells of two runners sent on a life-or-death mission with a message to cancel an attack and save the lives of 1,600 British soldiers.
It echoes tales Alfred would tell his grandchildren about his experiences at the Battle of Poelcappelle, which claimed the lives of scores of his comrades.
The Sun has tracked down his memoirs, Autobiography of Alfred H Mendes 1897-1991, in which he reveals not only his war stories but also steamy encounters with women he met during two years in the Rifle Brigade.
7
Alfred was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, and in 1915 he defied his wealthy Portuguese Creole parents by leaving to fight for Britain in the war against Germany.
Military records show he arrived in England in January 1916 and enlisted at the age of 19. By June he was serving with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, which three months later sent him to Oisemont, near Dieppe in France, to train as a signaller.
In his life story, published 11 years after his death, Alfred said: “I had no interest in the subject.
“I should have preferred something like a course in how best to use the machine gun. At least that would have fortified my chances of survival. As it turned out, my four-week stay in Oisement was to offer me a course in love-making.”
7
He fell head over heels for Lucille Sannier, the 18-year-old daughter of the local landlord.
Alfred, who was known as Alfy, remembered: “She spoke English with a quaint accent she had picked up from the English soldiers billeted in the town.
“She was petite, blonde, blue-eyed, her hair tawny, her figure perfect in its proportions and she spoke her language as if it was music. She was an exquisite creature. That first sight of her caused my heart to spring to attention.
“She followed me to the door as I was leaving later that evening, held up her mouth to be kissed and I kissed her on the lips.
‘We became lovers and I found her to be a virgin’
“The next night we became lovers and I discovered her to be a virgin. We saw each other every night, and each night was more ecstatic than the night before.
“In defence of Lucille and thousands like her, the world was at war and this included not only the fighting forces but the civilians, too, who were equally exposed to danger.”
Alfred claimed their first commandment was: “Thou shalt make the most of the physical pleasures, for life is brief — all too brief, these women said — to leave this world a virgin.”
Soon after, Alfred was sent to Passchendaele, which he described as, “an area into which countless shells plunged and left behind moon-like desolation with shell craters as traps for sucking in live men and drowning them”.
7
Just after first light on October 12, 1917, hundreds of men were sent to hold the village of Poelcappelle, near the Passchendaele Ridge.
The attack, in pouring rain, was a disaster. Out of 484 men from Alfred’s battalion, 158 were killed, wounded or missing.
Survivors were scattered over miles of water-filled craters with no way of communicating their locations. The only way to find them was to send out runners through the mud of No Man’s Land to check every shell hole.
Alfred’s commanding officer, 22-year-old Captain Alexander Craigmile, called for a volunteer to go out to locate surviving men from the regiment and report back.
'This is a dangerous assignment. There may be no return'
The young officer warned: “Make no mistake. This is a dangerous assignment. There may be no return.”
Brave Alfred wrote: “I had done a signalling course and although it bore little relationship to the job at hand, I felt myself under an obligation to the battalion. I volunteered.”
As he set off, the rain stopped — giving German snipers and nests of machine-gunners a better chance of seeing him.
He said: “The snipers got wind of me and their individual bullets were soon seeking me out, until I came to the comforting conclusion that they were nonplussed at seeing a lone man wandering in circles about No Man’s Land.
7
“But they decided, out of perhaps a secret admiration for my nonchalance, to despatch their bullets safely out of my way. Or they may have thought me plain crazy.”
He found many survivors and added: “In spite of the snipers, the machine- gunners and the shells, I arrived back at C Company’s shell hole without a scratch but with a series of hair-raising experiences that would keep my grand and great-grandchildren enthralled for nights on end.”
One of his stories was that during his two days alone on the battlefield, Alfred was struggling through the mud when ten Germans appeared from a pillbox. As he prepared to defend himself, they suddenly surrendered. Two weeks later, Rifleman Mendes was presented on the battlefield with the Military Medal.
His captain, who was killed six months later, received the Military Cross. Alfred said: “My citation was quite flattering.”
‘He set a fine example of devotion to duty’
It read: “It was largely due to his coolness and his complete disregard for his personal safety that his commanding officer was kept informed.
“His activity and untiring energy under the worst possible conditions of ground and weather was remarkable. He set a fine example of devotion to duty and every soldierly quality.”
Alfred, who died in 1991 aged 93, said of finding the Germans: “I have often thought that if I cared to exploit this incident I could have won myself the Distinguished Conduct Medal instead of the humble Military Medal.”
On leave in London in 1918, he met another woman, Rosanna, in a café and began a fortnight of love-making. He recalled: “She was Italian but her English was flawless.
7
“She was about my age and though not beautiful, except for her eyes and as sensuous a mouth as I have ever seen, her body was superb.
“What could I do better with my leave than spend it with her? The fortnight proved to be an orgy of passion.
“We squeezed every drop of juice from this all-too-brief session of love and life up to the moment of my returning to the front.”
In May 1918 Alfred was gassed in a German attack at the La Bassee Canal near Bethune and ended up in hospital in Sheffield. After the war he returned to Trinidad to become a writer but ended up as a civil servant.
MOST READ IN FILM
In 1940 he married his third wife, Ellen, in New York and their son Peter, who moved to Reading, is Sam’s dad.
Just as he had promised himself on the battlefield, Alfred told his story to his wide-eyed grandchildren, including a young Sam. Alfred and Ellen retired to Barbados and she also died in 1991.
More than a century after war ended, his tale is to become one of the greatest ever told.
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]
Topics