I suspect that he meant that it certainly wasn’t like that at the front: it was far, far worse.
I’m not sure about that, JBR. Would he have said ‘Thank Heaven’ if he had thought the real front was worse (even much worse) than what was depicted in the paintings?
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1918: Thou shall not be found out…
The scene is set in a public school. Joining the Officer Training Corps was compulsory. The Sergeant Major is a full-time member of the staff. The look on their faces show that the two miscreants face an unmilitary penalty for their crime.
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1918: Communication of a sort
Oddly enough I have a personal recollection of this kind of thing.
In January 1954 I was sailing on a troopship to my National Service posting in Singapore. The ship was a civilian liner which had been hired by the military. As a Sergeant (in the Royal Army Educational Corps) I was travelling Second Class which felt quite luxurious to me. Back in the UK wartime rationing was still more or less in place. This did not apply on board ship. In the Dining Room we were served by liveried waiters and the food was ample. On each visit we were each presented with an individual printed menu with the day’s date.
On one occasion a Scot sitting next to me was pocketing that day’s printed menu. He told me why he was doing this. He said that although he was unmarried he had a woman (his word, not mine) back in Glasgow. He and she were not talking at the moment. However he wanted her to know how well he was enjoying his lavish trip so he was going to place just the menu into an otherwise empty envelope and post it to her. Clearly this singular behaviour must have made a deep impression and thus stick in my mind. But the weird thing is that after this one chance conversation over 60 years ago I can still remember that my table companion was a Sergeant Wishart of the Royal Artillery. Why on earth would I remember that amount of detail?
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/donthurt_zpsjzzdzhor.jpg
1918: Protection
George Belcher is, as always, avoiding upper middle scenarios. The soldier who is guarding the German prisoners of war is far from being an A1 specimen. At the start of the war a man with his physique would have been rejected by the Army. By 1918 the military authorities could no longer afford to be so fussy.
The thought that prisoners needed protection is not absurd. Hatred of the ‘horrible Hun’ was intense.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/galfriend_zpsksprefcc.jpg
1918: Is this irony?
What is the joke here? I would imagine that the German prisoner is totally unlike Tommy’s little gal friend from Whitechapel.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/watch_zps0mxl3eix.jpg
1918: Sheer ignorance
The newly commissioned subaltern doesn’t even realise how much he is showing his ignorance. His rank has given him a totally inflated sense of his own importance.
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1918: Business as Usual
In spite of the desperate war (or even because of it) the same instincts still prevail. The two uniformed Don Juans are looking for amorous conquests.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/effie_zps0ynqmsc2.jpg
1918: Resentment dressed up as reason
Effie isn’t really concerned about her brother’s food coupons. She doesn’t want him to get the attention which she feels rightly belongs to her.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/balkans_zpshbwy0tti.jpg
1918: Two neglected aspects of World War One
The first neglected aspect is that there was a front in the Balkans. The initial enemy was Bulgaria, an ally of Germany. There was also the campaign to liberate Serbia from Austria-Hungary. Serbia’s cause had been the original spark which led to the outbreak of the war.
The second aspect is that a large number of British soldiers came from Ireland – south as well as north. They were volunteers, not conscripts. This fact tends to be air brushed out of people’s memory.
The artist, Stanley Spencer, served in the Balkans. He commemorated his stay in a military hospital by some vivid paintings.
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1918: The absolute minimum
It could be seen as a step in the right direction. Short hair might suggest a brisk get down to business attitude. The niece’s facial expression does not support this interpretation.
In three months’ time none of this would matter but there was clearly no inkling of this fact.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/husband_zpsvns8zs5c.jpg
1918: Perils of being a War Worker
He war work is to drive a car for staff officers thus freeing up a man for active service. Changing a wheel is part of the job. The general should be showing appreciation of her dedication – but he isn’t.
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1918: Chutzpah!
It is really difficult to imagine any way in which the Batman can deputise for the General.
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1918: I’ve heard that one before
This joke appeared in Punch in 1918. In 1955 I was a National Service conscript recruit and our Platoon Sergeant came out with exactly the same insult on the Parade Ground. I’m betting that he had not learned this from a 35 year old copy of Punch. It obviously was an old army joke.
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1918: The lure of the uniform
The soldier is talking big and it is having the desired effect on his girl-friend. Make the most of it, little man, after the Armistice your uniform won’t be that special anymore.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/S22904945/familiarity_zpsaekmposz.jpg
1918: Another lady driver
She too seems to be unaware that policemen control traffic. This type of joke has appeared here before. I wonder whether it stems from a gut feeling that women should not be driving motor cars.
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1918: My brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man
Here HM Bateman isn’t quite presenting his famous formula of ‘the man who…’ with astonished onlookers being appalled with what they were seeing. It is, however, quite close to it.
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1918: It wasn’t me
I suppose the General is using a commonly used expression meaning what was the man doing at the start of the war. The essence of the joke seems to be that the man was addressing the General in this way. That seems to be unlikely.
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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.
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1918: War without fighting
George Belcher is true to form here. Not for him, to tell the story of upper class people dealing with the war. The point being made by Mrs Smales’ friend is illogical. Fighting is what a war is about. On the other hand wars do give rise to various unwarlike situations not all of them unpleasant. I doubt whether that is the point of this joke.