Storm of Steel

Jünger is almost a month recuperating from his wound. When he returns to his regiment, of which only a handful of men survived the last battle, he is quartered in a cottage in a small village, where he finds out he is to be used as a scouting officer. In November, he travels to “the now entirely depopulated village of Gonnelieu” (114). Every night, he has “to reconnoitre the situation” and heads to the front: “The scene at night was muddy and wild, often with heavy exchanges of artillery. Frequently, yellow rockets were shot off that blew up in the air, and sent a rain of fire cascading down” (114).

The next night Jünger is injured again, shot through both legs by a sniper. While wounded, he loses his way in the woods and barely survives a gas attack. Another night a chance conversation delays Jünger a minute or two, saving his life when the crossroads he would have been entering had he not stopped is blown up. In the hospital recovering, Jünger laments his experiences:“I suffered an attack of the glooms, a contributing factor in which was surely the memory of the cold, slimy landscape where I had been wounded” (117).