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This is an excerpt from 'New Concept English 3 Lesson 36'

When the brothers were reunited, Hans explained how it was that he was still alive. After having been wounded towards the end of the war, he had been sent to hospital and was separated from his unit. The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot. Meanwhile, his unit was lost and all records of him had been destroyed. Hans returned to his family home, but the house had been bombed and no one in the neighbourhood knew what had become of the inhabitants. Assuming that his family had been killed during an air raid, Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.

My questions are

(1)What is the past for the past perfect in "The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot."

(2)Is there some extra grammar point I need to know about past perfect tense in a narrative besides "past perfect is past before the past" because the uses of tenses in this paragraph overall are very confusing to me.

Jingyuan Liu
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    (1)What is the past for the past perfect? In this context, the narrative starts with *When the brothers were reunited.* That establishes the "narrative reference time", in which context *he had been sent to hospital* refers to something that happened *before* the primary focus of the narrative. Note that very often we only use Past Perfect once or twice to establish temporal relationships (the sequence in which things happened), then we can revert to our preferred Simple Past once the sequence has been made obvious. – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '24 at 13:13
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    Does this answer your question? Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it? – FumbleFingers Jan 25 '24 at 13:13
  • the uses of tenses in this paragraph overall are very confusing to me You need to explain why it's confusing. – Stuart F Jan 25 '24 at 14:31
  • This reads like a translation: "All records of him" is better as "All his records." "Where he had remained ever since" is better as "Where he remained ever since." – Yosef Baskin Jan 25 '24 at 15:54
  • Also, when he returned to his family home the house had (previously) been bombed. – Kate Bunting Jan 25 '24 at 16:36

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