JonathanGillespie
Life or religion can force a man to spend his life on his knees. Perhaps when you have seen too much of life it's the only place left.
For some, the Great War was their patriotic duty. To others, it is where you go when you want to escape life. For many returning was not what they wanted, they knew what awaited them, not perhaps the release which might have been given them on the Western Front. It was the realisation that they were destined for the same poverty and deprivation that they had left four years before. No hope of an armistice here, this war was on poverty, this attrition would last until you died.
At least on the battlefield, you didn't have your wife and children with you. Come and visit Joe, returning to a land fit for heroes. You never know, you may find not much has changed in one hundred years.
Note - As the book is set in the North East of England, I have used some artistic license with certain words to try and get the local accent.