So I wonder who was billed for all those rifles, Brens and Boys ATRs left lying on the sand at Dunkirk? Did anyone get hauled up by the quartermaster or billed for their losses after they got off the boat at Dover? How about the ordnance returns from Singapore? Used to wrap parts or wipe bottoms probably. How about Greece or Crete in 1941? Who paid for all that lot?

Kit lying all over the place and no one bothered with it, but we're supposed to believe that if a soldier picked some of it up and messed about with it he'd be up on a charge?

How about those soldiers buried in Italyicon or a dozen other theatres with their rifles stuck muzzle down in the dirt? Are we going to pretend that no NCO or officer saw it being done? How about a soldier who lost his rifle in WWI? Is anyone seriously going to propose that he was made to pay for it? I'd like to see some evidence to back up that claim.

So there's a photo of a cut down No4 and he's not under close arrest? I'll bet the fellow next to him with the binoculars is an NCO too. Maybe he just hadn't noticed the rifle yet?

Worth remembering that most soldiers in world wars are not careerists, they're in for the duration and they don't much care for all the procedural bumpf that keeps things running in peacetime. If you want to know what it was like in a field dressing station in WWI or WWII you could go and ask your GP, but I suspect you'd learn more reading the comments of those who were actually there.

Sorry if that offends anyone, but since none of us were there, we'd probably best rely on the evidence of those who were.