Question: When the guys are getting ready to go into town, one of them says about the sarge "as short as he is he's out of here in 30 days." Someone also said "anyone as short as Brownie shouldn't have been out there". What do they mean by short?
Answer: "Short" in this context is military slang for someone whose tour of duty is coming close to an end. It's a derivative of "short-timer."
Question: What exactly did it take to get Norman to become brave and more willing to fight?
Answer: Although he starts out afraid, awkward and hesitant, Norman gradually becomes battle-hardened throughout the film. But there is one event that probably changes Norman more than anything: When his one-night love interest, Emma, is killed during a German attack. After that, the tank crew realises that Norman has changed, become harder and more focused, and they finally accept him as a team member with the nickname "Machine."
Question: What are the rifles that Jude Law and Ed Harris use in this film?
Answer: An officer is a person who has had special training (in college ROTC, or in OTS, called 90 days wonders) for command, tactics, military law and the like, after which they are Commissioned. They are basically management. An enlisted person is someone who has gone through basic military training, but does not have command responsibilities or authority. Basically labor. This gets a little confusing when enlisted personnel can rise in rank to become a Non-Commissioned officer, often called the backbone of the Service. But the highest ranked enlisted person does not out-rank, and has to salute, the lowest ranked officer.
Richard Welty