Storm of Steel

After almost a month in the village of Cambrai, Jünger and his men are sent north to Flanders. From Flanders, using guides, they march to the village of Koekuit under artillery fire: “Half an hour later, the shelling commenced, washing over our little refuge like a typhoon. The forest of explosions gradually thickened into a solid whirling wall” (161). Jünger is ordered to counter-attack and pushes his company forward: “By now it probably didn’t matter whether we stayed put, took to our heels, or advanced. So I gave the order to follow me, and leaped into the midst of the shelling” (163).

In the middle of the fighting, Jünger learns his brother is wounded. He goes to see his brother nearby and details several of his men to get his brother to safety. He spends the night in a wrecked blockhouse, trading fire with British soldiers. When Jünger is relieved in the morning, he is sent to occupy the Rattenburg, a “shot-up shell of a building reinforced with concrete slabs” (165). As the enemy nears, Jünger tells his men that they will hold the Rattenburg. Some of them have to be persuaded at gunpoint. As the enemy advances and Jünger’s men return fire, he can see they will soon be overrun and orders a tactical withdrawal. Away from the Rattenburg, Jünger forms a new defensive line, and they are able, with reinforcements, to hold off the British. In the night the rain begins, and though it saps Jünger’s will to fight, the rain saves them, because the British cannot advance as quickly over the muddy earth. Jünger’s men fall back to the village of Koekuit.

The chapter ends with Jünger’s brother’s account of his battle and subsequent wounding: “Suddenly, bespattered with mud from his boots to his helmet, a young officer burst in. It was my brother Ernst [...] His eyes filled with tears. We might both be members of the same regiment, true, but even then this reunion on the battlefield had something rare and wonderful about it” (178).