A war novel with (so far) no scenes of war: Parade's End

Strange things happen - maybe it's me, maybe my concentration was better last night - but moving into part 2 of the first volume (Some Do Not...) of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End it seems that at last the novel or series of novels is taking shape and starting to make sense. Part 1 ending with a long ride overnight in a horse-drawn carriage through the Kentish (?) countryside, Tietjens and the young suffragette, Violet Wannob (?), first they drop off for shelter the wanted suffragette demonstrator, keeping her from the police, then continue on - somewhere - Tietjens eventually on his way to the coast and a journey to Germany to reconcile with estranged wife Sylvia. As with all else in part one, it's very hard to understand where the characters are, what they're doing - we understand the conversation, in the moment - but it's as if we're eavesdroppers, passengers in the back seat, and we pt together what we can or will from what we here - FMF give no guidance. What I put together is the T. is increasingly interested in V., even though he is trying to reconcile with his wife - and she's fascinated by his intelligence and skills (esp. with horses - he can do just about anything) - they get in arcane debates about scholarly points, Latin translations for ex., highlighting their differences superficially but on a deeper level showing that they are truly similar and sympathetic souls. Then - onto Part 2: and it's not evident right away but we gradually discern that we are now some years later, T. is back with his wife, Sylvia, a beautiful and cold-hearted woman (not clear at all what's become of their unwanted child - wouldn't that be a major issue in any novel, even and English novel?); it also gradually becomes clear that the world is now at war (just some vague references to impending war in part 1), and then we realize that T. has been serving and he's home on leave: suffering from shell shock, which was apparently not widely accepted as a condition, suspected that soldiers used it as an excuse to get out of service. But T is really suffering - serious memory lapses. He explains all this to S., and it's kind of amazing they hadn't talked of this before. He's about to head back to the front, and she, in her peculiar way, picks a quarrel and suggests he should spend his last night (maybe ever) with V., whom she knows he has a crush on. She thinks she's being magnanimous, but in fact she's really mixing him up - though it seems she cares about nobody but herself. In FMF's peculiar way, we are now in a war novel - but we have not seen anything of the war, only its affects, through a soldier at home on leave. Easy to see here, btw, the influence on many English writers to follow - think of MacEwan or Pat Barker for two English writers who've examined the world wars through their after-effects on soldiers at home.