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Los Angeles, 3 April 1976
Banet: In Experiences in Groups, you allude to your wartime experiences. I'd like to hear more about that.
Bion: During the First World War, I went straight from school into the army and into the tanks because I wanted to see what a tank was. At that time they were still secret. I spent the rest of my time regretting it. It's very difficult to talk about the regret.
The military is a most peculiar business, because you are with a person only briefly, but you find that you get to know him quickly, very well, and in depth. There's nothing like this business of constantly being confronted with the probability of death. We had something like 700 officers come through our battalion in the short space of time in which we were in action – just about eighteen months. The result is that I knew individuals very, very well, but I would forget their names because I saw them so briefly. I remember coming across a fellow who wasn't in my company, but he recognized me. He was an AA scout – one of these people who go about on motorcycles. I recognized his face when he introduced himself to me, but I could not place him. But that's the kind of thing that helped me to see that I really felt extremely deeply about the people I knew.
Banet: It sounds like a very stressful time. Did these experiences contribute to your theoretical formulations about groups?
Bion: No, not really, but I suppose they had some influence. It is such a hard thing to describe. In my first combat action, I had the intense feeling that I must not get frightened – I must not run away. (Of course, you can't run away – it's impossible – you discover that.)
Another thing that you discover is that you don't settle anything in combat. You become more and more frightened, because you get to know more and more what the dangers are. That, I think, was a very unpleasant discovery. Mind you, I think that a good soldier, a regular soldier, can learn a very great deal. He doesn't become less frightene