Summary

The men are sent to a holding place for at time, where trains come and go and leave and take soldiers. They are falsely jovial; none of them have seen battle yet and are anxious. They see many wounded, which does little for their morale; plus they are stuck in the same place for a long time. They are placed in the Soca River valley in modern-day Slovenia, and early on Jozef marvels at how different war looks—one expects neat lines of soldiers facing off in gentlemanly columns. Instead there are deep trenches hiding thousands of soldiers, ready to pop up and attack by surprise.

The sight of the sharpshooter group tended to give confidence where they went. Their plans were unspoken and unspecific other than picking off Italian soldiers one at a time when it's unexpected to the enemy. Jozef...