18 (i) : The "fellow" being talked about in the extract is horse of the cavalry charge at Slivnitza. We know that the leader is Saranoff, Raina's fiance, but at this moment of time, 'The Man' does not know the leader's real identity, except that he is the one who led the Bulgarian cavalry attack on his artillery regiment.
The place referred to as "there" in the extract is to within firing range of the artillery regiment or the positions of the artillery (enemy) regiment lines."The fellow" will be killed if he reaches "there" because when he comes-to within firing range of the artillery regiment's guns, the guns will be fired and "the fellow"will be the first to be killed in the explosion.
(ii) : "they" who all come are the rest of the men and their horses from the cavalry regiment who follow behind their leader and his horse.
"they" are in two groups. The first group is the group of young cavalry men who are very enthusiastic and are eager to be engaged in the battle and thus they are described as wild and to be "slashing". The other group is the group of older cavalry men who follow the group of younger cavalry men because they are more experienced in cavalry charges and know that their chances of survival especially that they face in modern times artillery regiments. They would rather not take part in the attack and since they must, they take protection in coming in a group, each attempting to be closer to the inside of the group. In so doing their horses clash with each other and most of their injuries are from broken knees dues to the collision of the horses and not in engagement with the enemy.
(iii) : One can distinguish between the old and the young soldiers in the following ways : the young soldiers are less experienced as to the fate of a cavalry regiment when facing an artillery regiment and in patriotism, zeal and foolhardiness they go into the attack, following their leader making war cries and brandishing their swords. On the other hand, the more experienced older soldiers, knowing their certain fate really do not want to engage in the battle and come at the rear of the group. They attempt to come in a compact group, trying to get into the centre of the group so as to get the protection of bodies around them. In their effort to get into a safe part of their group many of them suffer from broken knees because of the galloping horses colliding with force against each other ! Thus the younger ones get killed engaging the enemy and the older ones suffer the wounds of war trying to protect themselves !
(iv) : The old soldiers consider themselves as mere projectiles as they realise that they are no match for the artillery regiments guns. The know that they will never get anywhere near the artillery regiment positions and that they become mere targets for the guns, sure of being either killed or being made ineffective.
(v) : The knees of the old soldiers get broken in the collision between soldiers and their horses as these older soldiers vie with each other to get into the centre of the tight group to protect themselves from the artillery shells of the opposing army.
People mistakenly think that these soldiers with broken knees have got their wounds engaging with the enemy in battle.
(vi) : The extract tells us that Bluntschli (The Man) a professional soldier who fights wars for money, is very skeptical about the patriotism of any soldier who has experience of war. He believes that actual engagement in battle takes away any patriotism a soldier may have and that soldiers who remain in the army, for whatever reason, take primary care of themselves - for example in this case, they do not sacrifice themselves for their comrades, rather they try and get into position where their fellow soldiers shield them from the attack of the enemy. Their lack of enthusiasm is shown in older soldiers bringing up the rear of the attacking force. Bluntschli expresses a totally anti - romantic view of war and soldiers.
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