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Storm of Steel

Ernst Jünger

Start date: October 15, 2016

Finish date: November 15, 2016

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Mar 08, 2018 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-bymrbyd, world-war-1, memoir, military-non-fiction

This has to be the best bit of WW1 writing I've experienced so far. I've often maintained that the Great War was the last major conflict in which the combatants regarded the foe with a certain amount of respect and chivalrous conduct. They were equals at arms, with neither side having an ungodly edge in technology, as we see today. Junger was typical of young officers of the time, whether they wore the grey or khaki: he was keen to fight, and did so energetically. His aggressive nature can be de This has to be the best bit of WW1 writing I've experienced so far. I've often maintained that the Great War was the last major conflict in which the combatants regarded the foe with a certain amount of respect and chivalrous conduct. They were equals at arms, with neither side having an ungodly edge in technology, as we see today. Junger was typical of young officers of the time, whether they wore the grey or khaki: he was keen to fight, and did so energetically. His aggressive nature can be deduced from the way he kitted himself out for battle (P.168):

I had got together some kit appropriate to the sort of work I meant to be doing: across my chest, two sandbags, each containing four stick-bombs, impact fuses on the left, delay on the right, in my right tunic pocket an 08 pistol on a long cord, in my right trouser pocket a little Mauser pistol, in my left tunic pocket five egg hand grenades, in the left trouser pocket luminous compass and whistle, in my belt spring hooks for pulling out the pins, plus bowie knife and wire-cutters. in my inside tunic pocket I carried a full wallet with my home address, in my right back pocket, a flat flask of cherry brandy."

Junger is not all business, however, and is quick to note humorous or ironical situations. Many passages are tinged with a bit of sardonic humour. I'm sure his colleagues and underlings were somewhat chagrined to find Junger did not mind calling them by name, as in the case of this unfortunate fellow:

"In the platoon left of us, Sergeant Hock, the unfortunate rat-catcher of Monchy, aimed to discharge a white flare, picked up the wrong flare, and instead sent up a red barrage light, which was taken up in all quarters. Straight away our own artillery opened up, and it was a joy to behold. One shell after another came yowling down out of the sky and showered the field ahead of us in a fountain of shards and sparks on impact. A mixture of dust, stale gases and the reek of flung carcasses brewed up from the craters.
After this orgy of destruction, the shelling quickly flooded back to its previous levels. One man's slip of the hand had got the whole titanic machinery of war rolling."

During his days in the trenches, Junger and his troops would face French, Indian, and Scots regiments at various times. Prisoners were usually treated humanely, and often troops did not fire on stretcher bearers from the other side. With all that amiable co-operation going around, one wonders why they didn't just drop the guns and go for a beer. Junger ponders that himself, in regarding a Brit soldier he had killed (p.219):

Outside it lay my British soldier, little more than a boy, who had been hit in the temple. He lay there, looking quite relaxed. I forced myself to look closely at him. It wasn't a cae of "you or me" any more. I often thought back on him; and more with the passing of the years. The state, which relieves us of our responsibility, cannot take away our remorse; and we must exercise it. Sorrow, regret, pursued me deep into my dreams."

I am happy to enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone, not only war buffs. Junger is an excellent writer and this book is one I will read over and over again, it's just that good. ...more

37 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2011 Nancy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: great-war, 2014-read, germany-austria

Forget Remarque; this is the most important German account of the Great War that I've read. It's scary stuff; Jünger's clinical detachment in regard to the carnage in service of the cult of the warrior shows in itself why it wasn't the war to end all wars. In terms of his international acclaim, his time table of December 1914 to summer 1918 which allowed him to ignore issues of "frighfulness" at the beginning and the "stab in the back" at the end I suspect is the only thing that made this story ...more

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Mar 27, 2014 Oblomov rated it really liked it

Ernst Junger was a German officer in World War One and in Storm of Steel provides a narrative of wartime service in this conflict from a German perspective. This statement is accurate but does no justice to a soldier who served in and out of the front line for four years, who regularly saw horrors which would break most ordinary men, suffered fourteen notable wounds including a final bullet through the lung in the closing months of the war and yet went to be a notable writer, serve in World War ...more

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