He smiled and lifted his eyebrows in mock surprise. ‘Why not?’ Then he became serious again, his face filling with sadness. ‘I don’t think it will go on for years. Fritz must be running short of men. Some of the prisoners we’re capturing are just young boys, and they’re so poorly trained. They should still be at school, still be in short pants, not trying to fill an army uniform. Their rifles are longer than some of them are tall.’
A tear trickled down his face. ‘Poor little bastards. They’re shitting themselves, and who’s to blame them.’ He was worked up and didn’t apologise for his language. ‘Children in the front line, that’s almost as bad as bombing hospitals, but that’s Fritz for you. We’d taken a mob of prisoners during Passchendaele, a lot of them were these boys, and a corporal wh
