Because even in this world made inherently illogical by the reality of war, some things have a perfectly logical explanation.
Fridge Brilliance
- The very first appearance of the Military Cook has him lamenting that, after all his efforts to prepare good meals to the troop, he was being appreciated for accidentally serving them dirty laundry water. There's a good reason if his main shtick became how bad of a cook he was...
- While he's always being annoying, at the start Musolesi didn't try everything in his power to raise money (up to falsifying and selling Mussolini's journals). Point is, one of his early antics got him declared legally dead, and before he finally managed to be reintegrated in the ranks as the "Soul of a Fallen Hero" it was seen his personal effects (that included many things that would have been considered luxury goods even in peacetime) had been taken and brought to his family and he was told his inheritance had already been distributed to his heirs: he suddenly went from being well-off to owning only the clothes on his back and can't trust the family that has effectively stolen everything, and is desperately trying to put away some money for when the war ends.
- That event also explains some of his other antics, such as blowing up any train he sees: he's betrayed the Fascist regime in revenge, and is sabotaging the Axis war effort.
- Musolesi is treated as an officer, but eats with the troop and is shown to fear the sergeant. He is an officer (that was specified in his introduction), and technically the highest-ranked around if a guest one (he's a federale, that is a very high-ranked Italian political officer... But a dead one, so he has to bunk with the troop.
- An early strip features an officer getting a phone call from Dwight D. Eisenhower bragging he just broke through their lines, establishing the series is set after the Allies landed in France and broke out of the initial landing zone. Suddenly, the horrible logistical situation, the general cynism, and many other things make sense...
- Establishing the setting even better, the very first strip has an officer protesting by telephone they have too many artillery ammunition, and other early strips feature the soldiers living in forts rather than in trench positions. The first strip is set at or near the Atlantic Wall before or immediately after D-Day, and the other early strips are set when the German troops in France still had actual forts rather than improvised trenchlines.
- A few strips feature crossovers and Lawyer-Friendly Cameos that make thematically sense:
- Superman beats up the crew of an anti-aircraft battery not only because they tried to shoot him down, but also, and more importantly, because that's what Superman did during World War II.
- Lupo Alberto, the baby blue-furred wolf protagonist of another series of Italian comic strips, is seen stealing food from the soldiers and convincing them it's a quartermaster that is selling it on the black market, and is doing that for three reasons:
- Alberto lives in a forest and feeds by hunting in the forest, bumming food from his chicken girlfriend in the nearby farm, and poaching the other chicken of the farm... But none of that is available when the frontlines are near, so he turned on the nearest food source.
- If Alberto were human, he'd be poor and homeless, thus an indesiderable under Nazi policies. So, even if he could steal from the enemy, he'd go after the Germans on purpose.
- Alberto's character would naturally push him to fight the Germans even if he weren't of implied Russian descendance (his fur was originally supposed to be silver to indicate he's a Siberian wolf, but on page it looked horrible), thus his thefts against the Germans while also spreading some confusion and reducing their trust in the quartermasters.
- The Phantom left his mark on some troopers (that is, he punched them in the face) because he too fought the Axis, and while he usually went after the Japanese the Ally of the Rising Sun hadn't debuted yet.
- The latter also explain why the soldiers had no idea who the guy who punched them was: it was the first time the Germans met the Phantom.
Fridge Horror
- At one point Musolesi is revealed to be "The Oldest Spy in the Army" because when discovered he swallowed not a Cyanide Pill but a breath mint. Considering how good he is at digging, he likely pretended to commit suicide with a cyanide pill and was buried alive, and he became such a good digger by digging his way out of his grave.
