Nancy Gish wrote:
>
> 1. One source is probably WWI.  "Rat's Alley" is apparently one name
> used for the trenches.  In letters Eliot more than once tells of Maurice
> Haigh-Wood's tales of shooting rats all night in the trenches.

There is a great Willie & Joe cartoon. They are sleeping in a haystack.
Willie holds a flashlight focused on a rat. Joe holds a 45. "Aim between
the eyes, Joe," says Willie. "They say they charge when wounded." (Bill
Maudlin, _Upfront_.)

Carrol