Summary
Twenty-Eight Minutes Past One
Tommo thinks about the church spires of home, which he was told reached upward as a reminder of heaven. In contrast, the churches in France have tall spires, but Tommo believes that there is no God here anymore.
After Big Joe is found, there is a temporary respite from all conflicts. Even Molly’s parents are there smiling, and the Colonel buys everyone drinks. The Colonel also gives Tommo’s family a ride home, and on the way, he talks about the best way to win the war.
Big Joe falls sick with a coughing illness, and the news of the war grows direr. Tommo joins Charlie for drinks at the local pub, but one day when they come home, Molly is there, her face red from crying. She and Mother explain that Molly is pregnant with Charlie’s baby and that her parents have thrown her out. Mother told Molly’s parents that she is now part of their family. Charlie is shocked; he says that he should have been the one to say this to Molly’s parents because she’s his girl.
Molly and Charlie get married, but the vicar says that no bells can be rung, nor hymns sung, because their child was conceived out of wedlock.
Grandma Wolf (who is now referred to as the Wolfwoman) sends a letter saying that Molly is an immoral girl and she should be dismissed from her position, though the whole situation is Charlie’s fault. Mother throws the letter into the fire.
Tommo moves into Big Joe’s bedroom. He is upset that his brother has conceived a child with the woman he loves. Tommo starts to avoid them both by doing more errands for Farmer Cox.
While performing one of these errands, Charlie stumbles upon a group of soldiers marching off to the front, singing loudly and wearing nice uniforms. A sergeant steps up and tells the crowd about the war; he says that they need more young men to fight, or else the Germans will invade Britain as well. The sergeant points to various young men in the crowd, including Charlie, and tells them they must join the war effort.
Tommo’s former classmate, Jimmy Parsons, steps forward, but Tommo stays still until an elderly woman pokes his back and calls him a coward. Tommo starts to run away and the woman calls him a chicken.
Tommo thinks about how Molly would admire him and maybe love him if he became a soldier, and about the respect he’d command throughout the village.
That night, Tommo talks to the rest of the family about his desire to be a soldier. Charlie is skeptical and Mother says he’s too young.
The next day, the Colonel visits the house. Mother won’t say what he said to her, but later, Molly tells him that the Colonel said all the young men who work at his estate, including Charlie, need to enlist in the armed forces or else he won’t let them live in the cottage anymore. The Colonel says it was only his wife’s last wish that they be allowed to stay, and he could change it at any time.
Charlie is brave about the whole situation, saying they only really need to make one more push. Tommo says that he’ll enlist with Charlie and lie about his age because he’s currently too young to enlist.
Two years later, Charlie reflects on why he made that decision. He realizes that it was partly out of loyalty to Charlie, but partly to prove wrong the elderly woman who called him a coward.
The boys head off to the recruitment station together. In the present day, Tommo thinks that that was a very long time ago.
Fourteen Minutes Past Two
Tommo keeps checking the time on the remarkable watch he has. He was told it was remarkable because it would never stop ticking, but Tommo finds himself thinking that if the watch was truly remarkable then it would be able to hold back time entirely.
Tommo thinks about the time that he and Charlie spent in the training camp for soldiers. The recruits are treated harshly, yelled at when they make mistakes, and given very little private time. However, Sergeant "Horrible" Hanley seems to have it in for Charlie as soon as the boys arrive. Tommo thinks that this is because Charlie is not afraid of him, unlike the rest of the recruits.
Things had been easy enough beforehand. Tommo was easily able to lie about his age to enlist in the army, with Charlie calmly telling the recruiter that they are twins (though he is older by one hour).
Afterward, the Peaceful brothers are sent to a training camp in the Salisbury plain, where they are reunited with several familiar faces from their village, including Les James the rat catcher's son, Pete Bovey the thatcher, and Nipper Martin, with whom they had played games at the local pub.
The training is quite grueling. The boys have to run up hills with heavy packs and stab bayonets into straw dummies that represent the enemies they will face at war. Though the training is tough, the boys have fun together at the training camp and the war seems very far off. The boys write cheery letters to their relatives and friends at home.
This changes when the new recruits board ships to France, where the war is being fought. The seas are rough and nearly all the men aboard become violently seasick. On the advice of one of the sailors, Tommo and Charlie head down to the hold of the ship, where they spend the night among the terrified horses.
The recruits are relieved to arrive in France, but they are met with the sight of many horribly wounded soldiers, some with their eyes bandaged and some unable even to walk. Charlie and Tommo begin to realize that this is no longer playacting.
They arrive at the training camp at Etaples and meet Sergeant "Horrible" Hanley once more. He forces them to perform grueling tasks, even adding rocks to their packs as they run uphill, but they know that to defy him means even worse punishment.
This does not frighten Charlie. When Hanley tells him he's a blot on creation and then asks him what he is, Charlie replies that he is happy to be here. This deepens Hanley's personal vendetta against Charlie.
However, this has the unfortunate result of making Hanley even more aggressive to all the recruits in Charlie's group, especially Tommo, who receives extra punishments for no reason. One day, Hanley tells Tommo that he must run around the grounds five times with the rifle over his head. Tommo collapses from exhaustion. This prompts Charlie to shout at Hanley. For this crime, Charlie is lashed to a wheel in the pouring rain. The sight of Charlie smiling as he is tied to the wheel puts Tommo in mind of the image of Jesus.
A Minute Past Three
In the present, Tommo realizes with frustration that he has fallen asleep and lost precious minutes. He keeps himself awake by singing "Oranges and Lemons," which used to be Big Joe's favorite song.
In the past, the men are told that they will be going up to the front. The men are glad to leave Hanley behind and instead to follow Captain Wilkes, a gentle man who was a choirmaster back in England and treats the men with great respect. The soldiers sing as they march through the burned-out countryside. Tommo does see Germans, but they are an unhappy group of prisoners-of-war. Once the boys settle in, they read and write letters from home and head to a pub in the nearby village of Poperinghe—or "Pop," as everyone else likes to call it. The men enjoy beer and food, and Tommo meets a lovely young woman who is the daughter of the owner of the pub. He thinks about the girl but finds her face turning into Molly's in his mind.
There is little action, so the men set to cleaning the trenches and dugouts. Little Les works to rid the area of rats, though the men all struggle with lice. The wet and rain cause trench foot, a nasty condition that may result in sores and is caused by constant immersion of the foot in water. The men struggle to keep up their morale, though Charlie is exceptionally good at this.
The men spend a monotonous time in the trenches, lightened only by visits to the local pub, where Tommo is always happy to see the beautiful girl who smiled at him once. Overall, they are lucky: there is little action in their sector, and though they've had a few injuries, these are mostly illnesses like pneumonia.
However, their company soon gets word from Headquarters that they need to send out patrols to find the strength of the line opposite. This is a dangerous task that involves going out into no man's land, but those who commit to it get a double rum ration before they go, which helps.
The men make their way to the German side, which is surprisingly easy. They surprise a German soldier, who screams and runs back into his dugout. Someone throws a grenade in after him, and Tommo is knocked backward by the blast.
By the time is it over, Little Les is dead and so are all of the Germans, save one. One of Tommo's companions, Wilkie, throws a coat over him and bundles him out of the dugout. The English soldiers think they're almost about to escape, but then one of the Germans sends up a flare. Guns fire; Tommo, Charlie, and the German stay low in the mud and water until the gunfire subsides.
Captain Wilkie is injured and unable to move his legs, so Charlie carries him back to camp—a heroic task, considering they have the German prisoner as well. They bring the German prisoner back and give him a cigarette before surrendering him to their superior officers. Tommo marvels at the similarities between the men on the opposing sides.
Charlie goes to visit Captain Wilkie, who has already been transported back to Britain. However, he has left his golden watch behind as a token of thanks. Charlie is delighted by this and tells Tommo that he should have the watch if anything happens to Charlie.
Analysis
The collective joy of the townsfolk after Big Joe is discovered hiding in the tower marks one of the last moments when everyone comes together to celebrate a collective joyous occasion. Surprisingly, even the Colonel, who has demonstrated himself to be cold-hearted and selfish, joins in the fray by driving the Peaceful family home.
However, not all is well. Not long after, Molly's parents kick her out when they discover that she has become pregnant with Charlie's child. This demonstrates the depth of Molly's parents' cruelty: they are willing to kick out their only child at one of the most vulnerable points of her life. Luckily for Molly, the Peaceful family takes her in and Charlie marries her right away, which gives the gloss of social approval to their union despite the fact that most people in the village know the truth.
The revelation of Molly's pregnancy is very painful for Tommo. Not only does he feel complicit in the matter because he was the one to run letters between them, but he also knows for certain that he can never be with the girl he loves because she is married to his brother. Not only does he feel that he has a role in Molly's disownment by her parents, but he also has to watch the woman he loves build a life with the other person he loves deeply, his brother. To Tommo's credit, he handles this well, only taking some space for himself to recover from this.
Tommo's encounter with the old woman who calls him a coward for not enlisting is a peculiar one. Tommo does not know this woman, nor does she hold any power over him, but her words still affect him deeply. This incident seems to harken back to Arthurian and Celtic myths about women urging bravery in battle and holding out the promise of sovereignty over the land to accomplished warriors. On a more mundane level, the incident brings to mind Margaret Atwood's observation that "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them."
The Colonel issues the cruel ultimatum that Charlie must enlist in the war or else he will evict the Peaceful family and the very pregnant Molly. Though Charlie has no desire to fight in the war or prove himself the way that Tommo feels he must, he needs to enlist if he is to protect his family. Tommo decides to go with him in order to prove wrong the old woman who called him a coward. This also suggests a very deep and loving relationship between the two brothers: despite the fact that Charlie has married the woman that Tommo loves, Tommo is still willing to go with him into death and danger.
