Editing Homage to Catalonia (section)

=== Chapter five (orig. ch. 6) ===
Orwell complains that on the eastern side of Huesca, where he was stationed, nothing ever seemed to happen—except the onslaught of spring, and, with it, [[lice]]. He was in a ("so-called") hospital at [[Monflorite-Lascasas|Monflorite]] for ten days at the end of March 1937 with a poisoned hand that had to be lanced and put in a sling. He describes rats that "really were as big as cats, or nearly" (in Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', the protagonist [[Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Winston Smith]] has a phobia of rats that Orwell himself shared to a lesser degree). He makes reference to the lack of "religious feeling, in the orthodox sense," and that the Catholic Church was, "to the Spanish people, at any rate in Catalonia and Aragon, a racket, pure and simple. And possibly Christian belief was replaced to some extent by Anarchism".<ref>George Orwell ''Homage to Catalonia''. Penguin Books 2013. p. 59.</ref> The latter portion of the chapter briefly details various operations in which Orwell took part: silently advancing the Loyalist frontline by night, for example.