Ernst Jünger

Provides a memoir of the First World War through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier who viewed the war as a personal struggle, testing himself by leading raiding parties and enduring as his comrades were killed.

Storm of Steel

This is the first-hand account of a badass muthafucka who somehow had a good luck fairy sitting on his shoulder throughout the whole of WWI from start to finish. I don't think it mattered to this guy which side he was on, he was just good at fighting and was always up to his responsibility. But don't mistake this as a reflection on a pleasure cruise - there are plenty of descriptions of the horrors of war in this memoir. 

Ashlyn

John Balek

It's often overlooked how much downtime soldiers have outside of combat. This can lead to a lot of time to think and reflect. I'd assume this was especially true during WWI while in the trenches. Many great authors, such as Hemingway and Tolkien turned their experiences into great novels. Ernst Jünger was another of those great writers.

I'm surprised I hadn't read this book earlier. When I was younger, and more fascinated with military history, I spent way more time learning about the Western Front. Nowadays I've been more focused on the Mediterranean/Ottoman front; if I'm learning about WWI at all.

 Ernst Jünger offers a great, first-hand, account into the life of a German soldier during WWI as well as the life of a solider in general. This is a very fast-paced book, not letting you get attached to anyone or anything; which is probably for the best. Storm of Steel is written in a very matter of fact style, similar to Hemingway but with more reflection.

What I find most impressive in the writing of this book is how well it balances being patriot as well as antiwar. I can definitely see the argument for both sides on this discussion as both factors are clearly on display. Jünger tells it how it really was, every death is described in as graphic detail as I'd imagine it happened. There are very few times Jünger describes the death or killing of an enemy but he greatly goes into detail the loss of his fellow comrades.

While describing the horrors of war he still refers back to the patriotic mentality of these sacrifices being worth the price of his home country. Jünger survived more violence than he should have. While he surely was a skilled soldier and commanding lieutenant, most of his survival has to be credited to luck and the sacrifices of those around him. Jünger may seem like an unstoppable force in this book but it's important to remember the millions whose stories we'll never get to hear. Jünger was one of the "lucky" ones who got to write their book.

From Jünger's perspective you might almost think Germany won the war. He was able to survive near death and escape most certain demise by being in the right place at the right time. It's no wonder the Nazi's liked him and this book. It's easy to forget the external chaos and get swept up in the excitement of Jünger's experiences, imagining that for you as well, war will have this same outcome. 

Along with the death and destruction of war, Jünger also portrays the absurdity. Men, on both sides, were creating such chaos and decimation while simultaneously acting as "gentlemen" treating each other with a common respect. Jünger expresses this in the book, stating his lack of animosity towards the enemy but also his lack of hesitation to kill them if need be. Often Jünger refers to his post-war correspondence with men whom he fought against in specific battles. This is a perspective that has been often removed from war depictions in popular culture. Too often the "enemy" is seen as a heartless demon rather than another human being in the same situation as you.

Laura

I'm not too into war accounts, but I found this WWI diary to be a fascinating and honest portrayal of warfare refreshingly free of politics. It was a bit slow at times, but the battle scenes were interesting and Junger himself lived a fascinating life. Recommended.

Bryan Alexander

This is an excellent and unusual World War I novel.* It's unusual in that most WWI fiction and memoires are anti-war, dark and furious at the appalling human waste.** Ernst Jünger, in contrast, had a grand time. 

Well, that's a bit flip. Storm of Steel is full of savagery, physical suffering, squalor, and an ultimate sense of frustration. But the narrator also exults in war. He delights in daredevil acts, charging the enemy, organizing his troops, and appreciating details of life in the rear. Jünger is repeatedly wounded (16 times for 20 punctures, he claims (314-5)), but keeps coming back for more. He learns a great deal, grows as a person, and ultimately looks ahead to a non-hideous future. What a light, Nietzschean spirit.

The plot is that of a war diary, following Jünger from the struggle's outbreak in 1914 through the failure of the Central Powers in late 1918. We don't get details of grand strategy or the big picture; instead, the text focuses on the immediate experience of life and death on the Western Front.

The novel excels at this detail. We watch troops deal with boredom, fighting off rats, coming up with nicknames for bad food. We see minute aspects of billets, gear, and personal details. There are few persistent characters, and none realized in any serious depth, but they create an impression of the armed forces around the narrator.

The sensual details and psychological aspects are quite clear.Weak natures are prone to the atavistic impulse to destroy; and it takes hold of the trench fighter in his desolate existence when any one appears above ground. I have felt it myself only too often. (219)
I was in full array: two sandbags in front of my chest, each with four stick bombs, the left-hand one having instantaneous, the right-hand with time fuses; in the right-hand pocket of my tunic I had an 08 revolver on a long cord, in my right trouser pocket a small Mauser pistol; in my left tunic pocket five egg bombs; in the left trouser pocket a phosphorescent compass and a policeman's whistle; in my belt spring hooks for pulling out the bomb pins, a dagger, and wire-cutters. There was a pocket-book in my breast pocket and my home address, and n the pocket of the back of my tunic a flat flask of cherry-brandy. (196-7)
I believe I have found a comparison that exactly conveys what I, in common with all the rest who went through the war, experienced in situations like this. It is as if one were tied tight to a post and threatened by a fellow swinging a sledge-hammer. Now the hammer is swung back for the blow, now it whirls forward, till, just missing your skull, it sends the splinters flying from the post once more. (81)

We can see certain famous historical details of the war through the narrator's eyes. Gas is frequently used and very frightening. Machine guns sweep fields. Air power is unremarkable, and not idolized, as we hear in some accounts. Artillery is the very worst, the god of war, utterly terrifying, and worse when experienced in the form of too-frequent friendly fire. Tanks rarely appear, and the one confrontation with some we see is pathetic:There was a cluster of shell-shot tanks quite close to the embankment, and I often went to look at them. They bore names that were sometimes humorous, sometimes defiant, and sometimes affectionate, and they were camouflaged with paint; but they were all in a pitiable plight. The little cabin of armored plate, now shot to pieces, with its maze of pipes, rods, and wires, must have been an extremely uncomfortable crib during an attack, when the monsters, hoping to baffle the aim of our guns, took a tortuous course over the battlefield like gigantic helpless cockchafers. I thought more than once of the men in these fiery furnaces. (286-7)
This reads like science fiction, when humans encounter artifacts of powerful aliens from another world or time. 

When not describing the combat zone Jünger reminds us of his excellent taste. He reads Tristram Shandy during leave, criticizes or celebrates taste in furniture, analyzes paintings, and reflects on the human condition. The war never degrades his sensibility.

Again and again Jünger celebrates the fighting prowess of his men. We don't get a sense of decay and social breakdown as we find in some French, Russian, and British accounts. No, Storm's German soldiers are infused with patriotism, well drilled, and fierce in battle right through the end.What is more sublime than to face death at the head of a hundred men? Such a one will never find obedience fail him, for courage runs through the ranks like wine. (27)
Prussian military traditions are singled out for praise. Again, this is so different from other WWI accounts, which emphasize military futility and decay.

Horror and gore are present throughout, as befits the subject.[O]ur gunner, the volunteer Motullo, was killed by a shot through the head. Though his brain fell over his face to his chin, his mind was still clear when we took him to the nearest dugout. (231)

Ultimately Storm of Steel lauds the generation of German fighters as having successfully passed through the ultimate test. The final chapter describes not the fall of the German empire in revolution, humiliation, and economic ruin, but points to new careers for veterans, who seem likely to triumph in whatever they do. This is an uplifting ending - again, how strange for a WWI novel!

I recommend this for anyone interested in the history, or in memoires/autobiographical fiction about experiences of enormous stress. Its non-tragic perspective is rare.

Again the carnival of carnage beckoned. (308)

*I'm reading the 1929 English language translation. I don't know how different subsequent versions are.

**with the exception of American Willa Cather's strange One of Ours (1923), where our hero finds purpose and satisfaction in the trenches. The only bad part about the war is that the Treaty of Versailles isn't as good as it could have been. Yes, an odd book.

Ernst Junger

'As though walking through a deep dream, I saw steel helmets approaching through the craters. They seemed to sprout from the fire-harrowed soil like some iron harvest ...' Storm of Steel is one of the greatest works to emerge from the catastrophe of the First World War. A memoir of astonishing power, savagery and ashen lyricism, it illuminates like no other book the horrors but also the fascination of total war, presenting the conflict through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. As an account of the terrors of the Western Front and of the sickening allure that made men keep fighting on for four long years, Storm of Steel has no equal.

Adriana Coppola

Cyrus Yochim

Joshua Line

Maurice FitzGerald

Anas A

Floris Verloop

One of the great war memoirs, published here in a stunning Deluxe Edition for the centenary of World War I and the Battle of the Somme—and featuring a foreword by the New York Times bestselling author of Matterhorn A worldwide bestseller published shortly after the end of World War I, Storm of Steel is a memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism. It illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, as seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Ernst Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but also—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger keeps testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure. His account is ripe for rediscovery upon the centennial of the Battle of the Somme—a major set piece in Storm of Steel—and a bracing read for fans of Redeployment and American Sniper. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Storm of Steel

Reviews