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).