What’s the meaning of ‘V.E.’ here? Do you know the meaning of ‘V.E.’ in the third passage? Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 9). "One of those shot by the carabinieri is from my town," Passini said. "He was a big smart tall boy to be in the granatieri. Always in Rome. Always with the girls. Always with the carabinieri." He laughed. "Now they have a guard outside his house with a bayonet and nobody can come to see his mother and father and sisters and his father loses his civil rights and cannot even vote. They are all without law to protect them. Anybody can take their property." "If it wasn't that that happens to their families nobody would go to the attack." "Yes. Alpini would. These V. E. soldiers would. Some bersaglieri." "Bersaglieri have run too. Now they try to forget it."Thank you, Mojave. But the background of this novel lies in 1918, during WWI.