It must have taken a full minute for me to realize that this was dignified war and not the murder of a boy in a homely gray uniform.

When I did realize it, I was so weakened that I broke down and cried.

I was a private then.

I covered his face, and got up strong enough to assault two other privates who had found my snivelling funny.

One of them went to the field hospital, and I went under arrest when I'd finished with the other.