I remember us as a class reading a novel / short story in English at school but can't remember the tittle or author. This was in the 70s so bare with me.
It was I think set in WWI and the antagonist was a a sailor who had or had been thought to do something shameful and now was redeeming himself by acting as a spotter on a barren island for the warship he had been a crew member of. It was a bit of a suicide mission.
Thats all I can remember. I thought it might be EM Forster but I cant find anything that matches.