Hi Tomcat.
There is an essential that must be learned in action. That is the ability to "Turn off" about what you see about you. Having been wounded twice, the second time very severely, I am told by my family that I used to create a bit of noise in my sleep, back in 1945.

But I had been in hospital for a very long time, with several injuries, the worst being a spinal fracture. For that I was encased in plaster from head to foot, rather like a mummy case.

But for those of us that were badly wounded, the war is never far away...sadly!
For there are memories that some of us can never forget.
Amidst the scream of shells and the flat "crack" of mortar's the sound of a very young soldier mortally wounded....

I can still hear his cries of "Don't leave me boys....Don't leave me"

Or the stretcher laying on the mud inside a tented battle aid station The Padre leaning over the lad saying "You have not long to go lad" "Is there anything I can do for you" then the very quiet voice "Write a letter to my Mum" His last words, for shortly after the Padre pulled the dirty khaki muddy blanket over his head.

Or for me? trying to comfort a good mate that had succumbed to battle exhaustion. We sat in a ditch waiting to tackle a night assault crossing of a canal against an enemy waiting for us. I sat with my arms round his shoulder as he wept uncontrollably saying Come on ***I will look after you. But he was gone. I still have a silly guilt feeling for leaving him in the ditch while we assaulted the canal.
Its nearly 64 years ago for crying out loud!
But there was also the place that I recall as the "Gates of Hell" a place that I can never forget, for here was the most terrible sights and atmosphere imaginable. But that is another story.
Sapper