The Speaker
The speaker in the poem imagines himself as a fierce, bald, and short-of-breath major in charge of organizing the war efforts. This imagining is done in a bitter and sarcastic tone, revealing the speaker's distaste for what he considers to be a corrupt war establishment. The speaker aligns more with the young men sent to their deaths than with those giving the orders that make it so.
Majors
In "Base Details," the majors are the British army officers in charge of giving orders. Rather than engage in fighting, they send young men to die on the front lines. They wear "scarlet" rather than the khaki uniforms used by fighting soldiers. As the speaker imagines himself in the majors' ranks, he takes on a puffy petulant face and engages in gluttonous behavior.
In the end, the privileged position of major does not prevent death, though dying while safely home in bed is preferable to suffering an end in the trenches. Majors and other positions of military authority are criticized in "Base Details."
The Young Soldiers
In the poem, majors send young soldiers out to the front lines, where it is implied that they suffer terrible and premature deaths. Technological advances altered combat in World War One, leading to a great deal of death. According to Britannica, "The greatest number of casualties and wounds were inflicted by artillery, followed by small arms, and then by poison gas." Other poems written by Sassoon handle this topic more directly; here, the purpose is to criticize the authorities who are callously sending the men to their death while staying out of harm's way themselves.
Sassoon refers to the soldiers as "glum heroes," "poor young chap," and "the youth stone dead." The first description implies a sense of discontentment. Even as they follow orders and receive recognition as heroes, the soldiers are glum as they go to battle. Perhaps they have already experienced or heard about the horrors of war. The major calling the dead soldier "poor young chap" suggests a lack of any true sense of remorse and sadness on the part of the major. The soldiers are "stone dead," evoking the total obliteration of their lives.
