This chapter focuses on the performance of gender roles in war. Gender identities did not solely involve pitting men against women, with combatant women reaffirming the fundamental masculinity of combat. Conceptions of race infused all these debates about wartime gender identities. The first major test of gender identities occurred well before either men or women approached the killing zones. In the literature addressed to boys and young men, gendered identities were defined against the opposite sex. In many cases, senior officers did not merely turn a blind eye to sexual violence carried out by men in the other ranks, but sanctioned the violence and actively participated in its perpetration. Willis's story contained many elements of the combat masculinity valorised by many armies: aggression, determination, relentlessness and proud virility. Finally, the gender roles forged in and near the killing zones did not easily translate into peacetime rituals of remembrance.