50 pages • 1 hour read
Ernst JungerStorm of Steel
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1920A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Retreat from the Somme”
In February 1917, Jünger returns to his unit, which is in a devastated area of the Somme Valley. The British attack constantly: “[T]he British were full of curiosity and enterprise here, and not a week passed without some attempt by little exploratory groups to gain information about us, either by cunning or main force” (124).
There are rumors of an impending battle, so Jünger and his men are ordered to make a tactical withdrawal. Over the next couple of weeks, Jünger writes in his diary a few incidents of attacks, such as March 1 when, after “hefty exchanges of fire” (124) in which a British battery nearly levels a platoon with the help of an observation balloon, a German airplane shoots the balloon down. In another attack, 50 British soldiers with “blackened faces” (125) strike but are all shot down by Jünger’s men: “This incident, like all our other encounters with the Britishers, left us pleasantly impressed with their bravery and manliness” (125).
Following these encounters, Jünger’s regiment is designated to hold the front while the rest of the regiment withdraws. As they retreat, the Germans set about destroying everything behind them so the enemy forces will have no resources. They poison wells and booby-trap walls. They destroy houses and blow up basements: “In some places, barrow ditches were dug across roads, and shells hidden in them [...] the moment the first lorry or field gun rumbled up, the board would give, and the nail would touch off the shell” (128).
The second-to-last day a dud shell falls near Jünger; had it gone off, he would have been killed instantly. At the pre-appointed hour, Jünger’s men blow up the trenches and shelters they’ve dug. They cross the Somme and blow up the last bridge. They settle in a small village, and Jünger uses the spices in a well-provisioned house to make mulled wine for his men.
Chapter 9 Analysis
Jünger writes several times about honor. He says he is impressed with the British, but what he means is he is impressed with the way they die. He believes it is honorable to rush forward into enemy fire and die there, stoically, with no complaining: “[B]rave puny men are to be preferred to strong cowards” (124).Twice seeing British soldiers die, Jünger either comments on the death, or—in the case of an officer who dies to a hand grenade—buries him, putting up a cross with his name on it.
There are other incidents in the chapter, however, that Jünger finds dishonorable. One is that he cannot even use the latrine because of the artillery attacks; he has to go in four separate installments. Once, he fears gas. His tone here is sarcastic, angry at the interruption: “Sometimes an oily bitter-almond smell seemed to waft through the passage—were they hitting us with Prussic acid now? Well, cheers anyway!” (127).
As the retreat begins in earnest and the Germans begin destroying everything so the enemy will have no resources, Jünger disapproves. He says the “scenes were reminiscent of a madhouse” (128), the underlying meaning being that the Germans have gone mad. He says it was “bad for the men’s morale and honour” (128). In another scene, Jünger sees a British soldier crossing open ground. He grabs a sentry’s gun and shoots the man in the head, killing him. It is the first time Jünger explicitly relates killing a man in the book, but it does not seem to bother him because he sees it as an honorable kill. The poisoning of wells and booby-trapping of roads does not. This shows insight into Jünger’s view of war: when men line up against one another war is honorable; when they destroy the world and use gas or booby-traps, it is not. It is a small distinction, but Jünger holds onto it.
