The novel tells us that Billy Pilgrim was there in Dresden during the firebombing, and was a part of the rest of the war. The novel also shows that he has, to some degree, PTSD. When the plane he was on crashed in Vermont, he was conscious but had brain damage and a cracked skull. He thought that the people who were rescuing him and the copilot were part of the war and that he was still in the war. In response to that thought, he gave them his address for the war; Slaughterhouse Five.
"Billy thought the golliwog had something to do with World War Two, and he whispered to him his address: 'Schlachthof-fünf.' " (pg. 156)
This is a subtle way for the author to tell of his and Billy's PTSD and their feeling of never fully leaving the war. In some way, not physically but mentally, they will always be in World War Two. When Billy gave the golliwog his address of the slaughterhouse, it was an instinct from the war. Earlier on in the novel the narrator said that Billy was told, along with the other prisoners of war, that if anything happens to them their slaughterhouse address. In a way, Billy as well as other soldiers who fought in war still have a small piece of them that is still in the war. Maybe that piece of them will never completely come home from war.
I think that you are completely right when you say that a piece of them will always be fighting in WWII. Even when the soldiers physically leave the war, they are still fighting a metal battle that will never end, or leave them. A piece of them was lost in the fighting, and with that lost piece went the ability to forget.
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