Sod That for a Game of Soldiers: A Personal Account of the Falklands War and 3 Para’s Bloody Battle for Mount Longdon

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I have found several sources suggesting that "game of soldiers" is somehow referring to the unpleasantness of war, which would suggest the meaning "---- this, the current situation has become an unpleasant one." But this seems highly unlikely to me as the related phrase cannot possibly be construed that way: a "lark" is never an unpleasant situation. The basic meaning is clear: "---- this" expresses disapproval of a situation. But I'm curious about the modifying phrase. From Terms of Reference (London: Hutchinson, 1966), by the British novelist Stanley Middleton (1919-2009): There is an idiom that seems to be distinctly British: “—- this for a game of soldiers” where the dashes are replaced with various swear words. For example: “Sod this for a game of soldiers.” It usually seems to involve profanity but there are some cleaned-up variations such as “Stuff this for a game of soldiers.” I remember in my police training being given a lecture by some armed police – they told everyone that, faced with killing someone, you would hesitate. I don’t agree. Soldiers react instantly to threats. Then again, the armed police also tried to be clever by sending a loaded pistol around the audience with a blank round in the chamber. They thought someone would not be able to resist pulling the trigger. When the pistol was returned to them, a former soldier had made it safe, and they were presented with the blank round, removed from the chamber, as well. We were told he should not have done that because he wasn’t trained. The medal ribbons on the guy’s chest said otherwise.

As Europe embarks on four years of events to mark the Great War, we are proud to present this new World War 1 artwork by Bob Barker. Blow" in the sense of "damn" or "curse" was fairly common in the UK up until about 50 years ago - I remember my mother when surprised or irritated using "oh blow" undoubtedly as a euphemism for some swearword exclamation. I imagine it originally comes from a wish for the offending issue to be blown away - possibly to Hell - though I have no evidence of such. "Blow this for a lark (or laugh)" would still be understood here, though we'd be more likely these days to use "screw" rather than "blow". We might even say "screw this for a game of soldiers".I have found several sources suggesting that “game of soldiers” is somehow referring to the unpleasantness of war, which would suggest the meaning “—- this, the current situation has become an unpleasant one.” But this seems highly unlikely to me as the related phrase cannot possibly be construed that way: a “lark” is never an unpleasant situation. I have read books that describe the covert nature of entering and exiting the Divis flats in West Belfast and being greeted with stones and petrol bombs. Sure, you needed to make sure that comings and goings were not routine so that a pattern could not be identified. Confrontations often happened but I never experienced the level of violence that some people describe when entering the flats. It must have been difficult to take for the locals having an observation post and secret squirrel stuff based at the top of the Divis flats in the middle of the republican enclave of West Belfast.

Definitions include: a phrase used in reference to someone under the influence of opiates who keeps nodding off with their mouth open, as it resembles performing fellatio. When Bob and Dave – whom the artist describes as the “most knowledgeable man on history I have ever known” – began to discuss key moments of the four-year conflict, it ignited a yearning in him to create the painting. Thanks for the response. I did see search the archives before I posted, but the explanation wasn't awfully clear. From Through the dark night: Being some account of a War Correspondent’s journeys, meetings and what was said to him, in France, Britain, and Flanders during 1939-1940 (London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 1941), by the British novelist, scriptwriter and journalist James Lansdale Hodson (1891-1956): The phrase finds its origin in the idea that some things are simply not worth the trouble. While children playing "a game of soldiers" might seem fun and carefree, if they were being forced to play soldiers for real they might think otherwise. Thus there is a subtle undercurrent that the situation has escalated from a harmless one to one more fraught with peril. It may also have ramifications about the pointlessness of things when dealing with legitimately necessary work - the menial task of cleaning up a children's room, for example, knowing full well the room will just be messed up again.Apart from radios, we also had various jamming devices that covered all the frequencies that a remote-controlled detonation would use. The terrorist response was to revert to cable and have what amounted to “dumb bombs”, which had a switch operated by a hidden bomber. We did our patrol and after about an hour started to make our way home. I’m glad to say that it was a boring walk around West Belfast – nothing happened, we did a couple of vehicle stops, spoke to a few locals, but that was all. The locals didn’t give us any trouble, we returned to base, it was another day at the mill, you might say. We liked boring. We unloaded our weapons and had a debrief and that was it, off for a tea or, in my case, off to the ops room for an eight-hour shift.

a 'game of soldiers' is what children have - pretending / role-playing at being soldiers. something they generally find fun. the expression 'sod this for a game of soldiers' or 'fk this for' or 'bugger this for' all operate in the same way - it is an expression that the situation that one is in has turned unpleasant (from being a metaphorical 'game of soldiers')and they want to be out of it. Definitions include: In the West/Central Canadian accent, "about" is pronounced somewhere between "aboot" and "a boat".As a side note, and to jump eagerly onto one of my favourite hobbyhorses, Terry Pratchett is of course one of the finest writers writing today. Painted in the nostalgic-style that this Yorkshire-born and bred artist is known and admired for, ‘Sod This For A Game Of Soldiers’ is an atmospheric work that shows a group of English and German soldiers playing football on Christmas Day 1914. The conflict in Northern Ireland referred to as The Troubles started in the late 1960s and ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, although British Soldiers were still deployed until 2007. The conflict was primarily ethnic and sectarian, but also had its roots set in the historical discrimination of the indigenous Irish. Generally, the Unionists (mainly Protestants) wanted to remain within the United Kingdom and the Nationalists (who were mainly Catholic) wanted to leave the United Kingdom and form a united Ireland (north and south). This phrase occurs, for example, in A new start after 60: I found love after a painful divorce—and we moved to an uninhabited island, by Emma Beddington, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Monday 3 rd April 2023: That is what death is like. It doesn’t matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn’t matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore.”