1914. He and Charley meet each other in a German POW camp in 1918. Oiley Oliver Charley's brother-in-law, he arrives at the front as a private during the Somme Campaign and soon proves to be a snivelling coward. Escaping from the war with a self-inflicted injury, he returns to London to become a con-man, black marketeer and stand-over merchant. Smith 70 and Young Albert Smith is the eccentric and cheerful machine-gunner who regards his work as both a science and an art-form and Albert is his injury-prone but uncomplaining loader. Dr No British Army doctor who treats wounded troops at a forward aid station. Known for his cold and callous attitudes towards the suffering of injured soldiers, refusing to allow even badly injured men to be sent to the rear, often dispensing the dreaded 'Number 9' pill, a strong laxative intended to 'cure' all ailments. Charley initially despises him but he later learns of the horrific conditions and immense pressures that the exhausted doctor works under. Kate A young nurse who lost her fiance at Gallipoli in 1915 and who tends to Charley when he is hospitalised in early 1918 with an accidental self-inflicted wound. After a tense beginning, the relationship blossoms into romance and the pair eventually marry and after the war have a son, Len. Skin Skorczyk British soldier whose parents were born in German-ruled Silesia and whose brother is in the German army. Corporal Pig-Iron An African-American Doughboy of the 'Harlem's Hell-fighters'. Colonel Ziess Tough, brave and ruthless German officer who commands the veteran 'Judgement Troopers' and launches a deadly counter-attack on the Somme against the sector where Charley's platoon is located. Having risen from humble origins, Ziess despises his more aristocratic peers and instead believes in the modern ideas of war - 'total' war to be waged without mercy. Corporal Adolf Hitler In December 1917, Charley's unit is located in the sector opposite the regiment of the young Hitler who appears here as a short-tempered, idealistic, selfishly brave and somewhat pompous soldier who is tolerated, rather than liked, by his comrades. Unteroffizier 'Guts' Guttenheim Sadistic German officer who runs the POW camp that Charley and Jack are confined in during the summer of 1918. Warrior A British army horse that Charley, who grew up working with horses, saves the life of in 1916 and encounters several times during the rest of the war, the two sharing