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The smoke from their cigarettes, curling lazily into the bleak sky, becomes a symbol of fleeting normalcy. In a battlefield dominated by death and destruction, the simple act of lighting a cigarette represents agency, a small choice that allows soldiers to assert control over their environment. It is also a ritual of solidarity; passing a cigarette or sharing a moment of quiet forms bonds that sustain men in circumstances that would otherwise overwhelm them. In the chaos of Passchendaele, camaraderie was as essential as ammunition, and the bonds formed in such moments often endured long after the guns fell silent.
