Quote 1
"By Jove yes," says Haie, his face melting, "then I'd grab some good buxom dame, some real kitchen wench with plenty to get hold of, you know, and jump straight into bed. Just you think, boys, a real feather-bed with a spring mattress; I wouldn't put trousers on again for a week." (5.26)
These men haven't been around women for months and months. Most are so young that they don't even have girlfriends or wives. Haie is, um, feeling frisky.
Quote 2
"In the army in peace time you've nothing to trouble about," he goes on, "your food's found everyday, or else you kick up a row; you've a bed, every week clean underwear like a perfect gent, you do your non-com.'s duty, you have a good suit of clothes; in the evening you're a free man and go off to the pub." (5.38)
What is Haie's life like at home? What alternative lifestyles does he have in peacetime? Do you think he really knows what it is like to be a non-commissioned officer in peacetime?
Quote 3
Haie looked round once again and said wrathfully, satisfied and rather mysteriously:
"Revenge is black-pudding." (3.78-79)
What in the h-e-double hockey sticks does Haie mean when he says, "Revenge is black-pudding"? We know that blood pudding is a delicacy in several cultures involving congealed blood in sausage form (a.k.a. blood pudding). In German this delicacy is known as blutwurst. Maybe Haie means something to the effect of "What goes around comes around." Hmmmm.