Storm of Steel

In June, Jünger rejoins his regiment near Vraucourt, which is now far behind the front lines, but soon moves by lorry closer to the front. While living in a bombed-out crater, Jünger questions the war: “I felt that the purpose with which I had gone out to fight had been used up, and no longer held” (260). Everywhere is in ruins:“The main village street was lined with the debris of our recent stalled advance. Shot-up wagons, discarded munitions, rusty pistols and the outlines of half-decomposed horses, seen through fizzing clouds of dazzling flies, commented on the nullity of everything in battle” (263).

Following a week on the front line, both sides suffer from Spanish influenza. When the enemy penetrates the trenches, Jünger’s men are sent to stop them, which results in hand-to-fighting and the loss of one of Jünger’s men before the British are repelled. After clearing out another trench, and subsequently losing it to the British, Jünger retakes it again, but soon receives fire from his own artillery. While attempting to take the next trench, Jünger’s men are forced into a bottleneck by New Zealanders: “Later on, when I thought of the way the New Zealanders triumphantly ran up and forced our sections into that deadly bottleneck, it struck me that that was exactly what had happened on 2 Dec 1917 at Cambrai, but with roles reversed. We had looked into a mirror” (273). Jünger and his men, badly reduced in number, are forced to retreat.