11-04-2017, 09:40 AM
1019
Re: The Pages of Punch
1918: Domestic life near the front
Why does the Officers Mess keep rabbits? It certainly isn’t to enjoy the company of domestic pets. They clearly do it in order to augment their army rations. The sergeant uses the same diplomatic language used to indicate soldiers who have died and those who have received wounds seriously severe to qualify them for return to Britain for prolonged hospital care.
Murgatroyd and Clarence, having ‘gone west’, show no signs of violence visible on their corpses. This is unlikely and this is obviously done to spare the readers of Punch from another reality of war. Fritz sending over a big one means that the Germans have sent over a massive shell.