Storm of Steel

In October, Jünger is sent back to Flanders, where, in the village of Roeselare, he stays in a house abandoned by all but the housekeeper, her daughter, and an orphan girl they have taken in. When the artillery starts falling on the village and the little girl screams, Jünger calms her by turning on his flashlight. When passing through heavy fire to a nearby village, Jünger asks for directions from a soldier, who shrugs indifferently. Jünger pulls his gun:“It was the first time in the war that I’d come across an example of a man acting up, not out of cowardice, but obviously out of complete indifference” (195).

At the front, Jünger stays under fire for several days. He spends one night in a farmhouse because of rain; the next night he sleeps in the open, and the farmhouse is destroyed by artillery: “That’s the role of chance in war” (196). As an intelligence officer, Jünger is charged with updating enemy movements. He is often under fire and surrounded by exploding artillery, as the British force back the German lines: “In the time between the first distant whine and the very close explosion, one’s will to live was painfully challenged, with the body helpless and motionless left to its fate” (198).

The next morning, at the front, Jünger reunites briefly with Tebbe, one of his oldest friends, then decides to push forward to make his intelligence report. Crossing a swampy area, Jünger and his men are shot at by British soldiers:“As there was nowhere to take cover, we had no option but to run back, with the bullets plugging into the mud all around us” (200). The next day, continuing his reconnaissance, Jünger goes again to the front, where he sees “stretcher-bearers” (47) moving bodies unmolested by either side. On his return through the swamp, an irritant smell from British bombs accosts his senses. Afterward, Jünger reflects on the heavy losses, saying they were “appalling, especially of young officers” (202).