The new weaponry
WWI introduced new kinds of weaponry to European warfare unlike weaponry from ages past. Machine guns, tanks, airplanes, and mustard gas are just some of the new, experimental weaponry used by these rival armies. The German use of mustard gas adds a nearly absurd level of panic and horror to the war. The war is defined by dramatic irony, because day by day, they learn that it can be even more horrifying than they ever imagined.
Strategic error
Because the progress of technology had reached a critical point, the former strategies of war were unsuccessful, and this led to ironic strategy errors like swarming a machine gun, for instance, just to find out that everyone who tries that dies. There are battles that Graves recalls with pained sorrow, understanding that his lack of expertise in these new kinds of warfare might have meant more death than was necessary.
New officers without training
In a scene of absolute irony and absurdity, Graves tells of a time when the British military was in desperate need of officers, so they recruited graduate students from British universities and gave them roles in the military as ranking officers. Graves explains that this was painfully ironic; now the least qualified people of all—brand new, green soldiers—were in charge of entire platoons. The irony left him paranoid and beside himself.
British indiscretion
Graves' memoir is not about how the Germans are evil and the British are good. The ironic truth is that there is indiscretion and malice on both sides, and he reluctantly admits that there are rumors of German POWs being severely mistreated, or held in contempt in prisons without due process or trial. Graves reports a rumor that when the Germans asked if all their POWs had been released, the British army lied and kept some back for reasons unknown.
PTSD
Graves learns the hard way that just because he left the war, that doesn't mean the war left him. Because this era of human history did not have the psychological literature about PTSD that exists today, he is left to discover the ailment firsthand without warning. Through dramatic irony, he learns day by day of PTSD and the panic spells, the hallucinations, the depression and paranoia, and the poor treatment that exists for such as he.
