In training and on active service, men were given leave. Leave could be for rest and relaxation, or for family reasons if a wife or child were seriously ill.

Going home on leave from the battle front was a welcome rest from the cold, the wet, the mud and the lice. It was a chance to recover, to live normally, and to meet friends.

Soldiers could show off the souvenirs they had collected, and give presents to their family and girlfriends. Some got married, some got their wives pregnant, and some never returned to see the baby.

But many soldiers who had been fighting found it hard to adjust to ordinary life, or to talk about the war to people who had not experienced it and could not understand what they had been through. Some were glad to get back to the war and their fellow soldiers.