But here, in a description of the interrogation and execution of Italian officers by Italian police, he is droll, and it's quite effective.
The questioners had all the efficiency, coldness and command of themselves of Italians who are firing and are not being fired on."Your brigade?"
He told them.
"Regiment?"
He told them.
"Why are you not with your regiment?"
He told them.
"Do you not know that an officer should be with his troops?"
He did.
That was all. Another officer spoke.
"It is you and such as you that have let the barbarians onto the sacred soil of the fatherland."
"I beg your pardon," said the lieutenant-colonel.
"It is because of treachery such as yours that we have lost the fruits of victory."
"Have you ever been in a retreat?" the lieutenant-colonel asked.
"Italy should never retreat."
We stood there in the rain and listened to this.
...
I did not know whether I should wait to be questioned or make a break now. I was obviously a German in Italian uniform. I saw how there minds worked if they had minds and if they worked.
...
We stood in the rain and were taken out one at a time to be questioned and shot. So far they had shot every one they had questioned. The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.
A Farewell to Arms, 223-4, 225
