Aunt Sally name of a figure of a woman’s head at which balls are thrown, as in a sideshow; a person or idea seen or set up as an easy target for criticism.
pocket-torch [British] a flashlight.
Somme a river in northern France, which flows past Amiens, where both sides battled in 1916 and then again in 1918. The first battle, costing a million lives, was a Pyrrhic victory, with so much loss to combatants that neither could claim advantage.
listening post an advanced, concealed position near the enemy’s lines, for detecting the enemy’s movements by listening.
flame-thrower a weapon for shooting a stream of flaming gasoline, oil, napalm, etc.
calibre the size of a bullet or shell as measured by its diameter.
parapet a wall or bank used to screen troops from frontal enemy fire.
shell-shock a psychological condition characterized by anxiety, irritability, depression, etc., often occurring after prolonged combat in warfare.
storm-troops the first wave of the infantry assault.
Stations of the Cross a series of fourteen crosses, as along the walls of a church, typically placed above representations of the stages of Jesus’ final sufferings and of his death and burial, visited in succession as a devotional exercise. The foreboding image connects Paul’s wartime sufferings with Christ’s final days.
waggle-top a mortar shell that wobbles like a Roman candle as it spins to earth.
