Siegfried Sassoon utilizes understatement, irony and visual imagery to show the disparity between how poorly soldiers are treated and how the high ranking officials treat themselves in the military in his poem Base Details. It highlights the agitation and disgust the speaker (who may be a soldier based on the knowledge he or she has about the details of the military) has towards the superior authorities because the visual imagery used to describe them is quite mocking and a little invective.
Sassoon includes an understatement to show the lack of care the high ranked officials and Majors in the military have for the lives of the soldiers and what the soldiers endure in combat. An understatement is the presentation of something as being less important or not as bad as it actually is. In line 8, there is an understatement, as the battles of war in which many lives were lost is described as a "scrap." The word scrap is generally used as a description of a a small quarrel that is minor or unimportant. This shows how the superior officers in the military do not exalt the soldiers and the battles they face-making the soldiers dispensable and insignificant. Everyone knows war is a serious battle where thousands upon thousands of people die, so the fact that the war is considered a "scrap" illuminates the idea that the high ranked officers believe the soldiers lives do not matter.
The insensitivity of the high ranked officers in the military is also highlighted by the use of direct speech and verbal irony. Sassoon undermines the sensitivity of the officials (in a way it is another understatement) with the statement that he has known the father of the "poor young chap" well which implies that that is the reason he feels sorry for the soldier (line 6). This creates a sense of irony as the official is saying one thing but means another because it is clear that the officer does not really care about the soldier with such a sarcastic undertone. Also the use of the pronoun "we" in line 8 creates a sense of irony as well since it is evident that that the soldiers and high ranked officials live totally different lives, yet the word we suggests togetherness.
While the soldiers are living trivial lives and fighting in little quarrels, the higher ranked officers live in the lap of luxury, treating themselves to the best of the best. They get to over indulge on drinks at the "best hotel[s]" and go "safely home" at the end of every day (line 5, line 10). The contrast between the "glum heroes" going to their deaths and the officials destination to the "best hotels" is poignant and creates a stress on the misconduct in the military (line 3, line 5). Meanwhile, the soldiers are dying in battle. Clearly, the speaker is rather disgusted by the disparity between the lives of the soldiers and those of the officials because of the mocking, invective tone of the visual imagery used to describe the officials. They are described as "fierce" and "short of breath" which is just a way of calling them all cut throat, out of shape and over weight (line 1). Language like this alone denotes a negative image of these high ranked officials and a general dislike of them. The speaker is clearly aggravated by the officials for treating the soldiers so poorly and having a general disregard for the soldier's lives.
