Smash hit

But since the menace of ‘The Day’
Has commandeered the Nut,
Since demi-saison modes display
A military cut, It's up to us to do our bit
Each time we take the road,
For, if we wear a warlike kit,
The mien must match the mode.

What! would you set a ‘forage cap’
Upon a drooping brow?
The feet that used to mince and tap
Must stride with vigour now;

No longer must a plastic crouch
Debilitate the knees;
We've finished with the ‘Slinker Slouch’;
Heads up, girls, if you please!

Jessie Pope

As soon as war broke out, women began to contribute to the war effort. Many volunteered as nurses and others took over men’s jobs or were employed in munitions factories. Those who sported military-style dress provided rich material for satirists; Deportment for Women was first published in Punch. The German toast to “Der Tag”, or “The Day”, which looked forward to the destruction of the British fleet, was often quoted as an example of German arrogance; a “Nut” was a fop or dandy. Because of Jessie Pope’s often thoughtless patriotic verse, Wilfred Owen ironically dedicated his poem Dulce et Decorum Est to her.

The Bullet

Every bullet has its billet;
Many bullets more than one:
God! Perhaps I killed a mother
When I killed a mother’s son.

Joseph Lee

Joseph Lee, a professional artist, enlisted as a private in the Black Watch in 1914. By 1917 he was a sergeant and went on to be commissioned into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. In November that year he was captured and spent the rest of the war as a German prisoner. His concern for the men he killed was echoed by many fighting men, many of whom had more sympathy for their fellow soldiers across no man’s land than for those at home who seemed to have little understanding of what the men were experiencing.