Introdution

           In the beginning of this book, i read the introduction by Michael Hofman. This man laid out the foundation of the book, from where it began in Ernst Jungers’ life, what he was doing before the war, just to give me an insight of this man. In his intro he wrote, “Storm of Steel…is one of the great books of World War I, if not the greatest…” ,and “…Storm of Steel. is without question the finest book on the war that I know: utterly honest, truthful, in good faith.” So even before I started even reading the text, i was already anticipating how great this was going to be.

Chapter 1

     In the beginning, Ernst arrives at a train station in Champagne, in the middle of December.His platon starts to from, up when he describes how he first got there and how long has it been. The they start to head out of the town, towards artillery fire, and flares. When they finnally arrive at their location, they have go ito the trenches set ot before them, waiting for the flares to shot up and get pounded by French artillery. There is those cramped trenches he sits for the night.

Chapter 2-5

    In time, Ernst company was stationed in Champagne for and during he winter, after some time they moved out and head towards Mars-la-Tour on train, and foot. There they engage the enemy very quickly, during this battle he was wounded in the gut, and shipped back to Germany for rehab, and after 2-3 weeks, he returned to battle. It took a couple of weeks to rejoin his company in St. Leger, but he didn’t get to stay for long, since they were needed at Donchy. When they arrieved, they were sent to the front lines, trenches, where they experienced heavy bombardments from the British. And for several months, Ernst and his company stay in that town where they encountered severalbombardments, gas attacks, assualts, and more.After several months, their company was relieved by another regiment. And they kept flip floping turns in the trenches, and had serval bombardments that happened and are to come.

Chapter 6-9

    After that whole dilemma, Ernst was told to report to divisional HQ for officer training. After his training is complete, he is then transfered back to his company.That afternoon they received artillary and mortar fire. Ernst and his men are relieved for a short break. July 3, the company moved back to their orginal position on the line. Ernst recieves orders to go to Combles for a time. He is within the trenches when he walks to a door, when a artillary round blew up and shrapnel wounded him in the leg. After sometime, he goes on a patrol in the woods outside of Combles, and gets  wounded again, And after two weeks he is thrown back in. And after a while, he takes control of a company to watch the retreat from Somme.

Chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13

   After the retreat, they moved to Fresony. There Ernst was instructed to watch all of the activity that happens within his area. In April, they started to receiving bombardments, and which each passing day, they grow with power and intensity. For about a month, Ernst and his men keep getting pulled off and pushed back into and out of the trenches. One night, their superior offices told them to organize and prepare themselves for an ambush, but unfortunately there were discoveried before could attack. But on their way back, they one team gets cornered and Ernst goes to the rescue. They break free and arrieved at their lines, when he gets back to his bed, he remembers some of the stories that is uncle use to say. After a few days the Brits strike back, they attack, while thy were bombarding them, Ernst and his men goes and tries to take out the guns, but he got peppered with shrapnel, and was left dead, this wound actually saved his life, because the attack failed, and everyone lse died. But he got help, finally after being there on the battlefield for over 13 hours, and when he gets to the med station, his brother comes in.

Chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16

    After his injuries from the last battle, he returns to the fight on the 4 of August. His first task back is restoring the trenches, and then he was called up to Divisional HQ. HQ wants them to reck havoc on the enemy, within their lines, basicly a special ops attack. So Ernst picks his team, and they train for over a week, and they are prepare to strike back. They crawl up to the enemy trenches and slip in, everything was going good until, a Brit saw thm and tossed a grenade at him, and then they just stirred up the h nest. Before retreating to their lines, they took a few machine guns, and destroyed a few more. When they get back, division brings Ernst in to get a full report of the attack. When he returned to his men, they moved off the line, and headed towards Roselare, for some reconassiance work. On the 26 of October, they were called in for an emergency defense, since the Brits were coming. When they got to the trenches, after some time,  mortar rounds landed 20 feet away, and wiped out 3/4 of his men and wounded him in the head. After that engagement, and after he recovered he was ordered to watch the cross roads, with the water,a river, to the left and the road on the right.

Chapters 17, 18, and 19

   on the 17 of March, Ernst and his company heads towards the Brunemnt, for the next battle. On the 21 they engage in the battle, and they get shot at from all over. After they won the first round of the battle, they have been informed that the Kaiser and Hinderburg was on their camp.When they went to attack the British, therewere two regiments that storm towards the British lines. Whn they get in the first trench, everything was too quiet, and then on the second row of trenches several machine groups opened up on us. This trench battle was becoming very ugly, very quick. Then start to work their way up to the machine guns. They take the trenches, but then they recive orders to persue the last group of troops. While moving through the trenches they run it to several last man stands basicly.When they reach to the backside of th trenches where the roads are at, Ernst notices that h has a bullet wound in the middle of his chest. And he was takn back to the German lines. And was transported to a hospital. After he gets out of the hospital, his company is already on the move. They settle in, but then they recieved heavy artillery bombardments. After a few more days they were relived from the trenches. Then he finds himself needing a strecher bed for him. Then he is transfered throgh out several aid stations, or hospital, and then he receives the  Pour le Merite.

Summative Post

    This book, Storm of Steel, has all of the qualifications for being a  literate merit. This book shows the heart and soul of one man, and his challenges and accomplishments during his time during the war. This book is a translation of the original diary, but it still contains the power and feelings that this author. This work is going to be still know for generations to come. This book is very much like All Quiet on the Western Front.  

Critical Analysis

This book was an extrodinary account of the Great War. There have been few books, that is have read about war, that actually takes you it to the story and brings it to life. This book is a first hand account of the war from a Germans perspective, which few books are written that way, and its not sugar coated, just the raw emotions, scenes, and atmosphere that this is shown through this book. I have enjoyed it very much.

Cool Links

There are several cool links about world war 1 and Ernst Junger, here are a few:

•  http://www.firstworldwar.com/
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWjunger.htm
• http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ejunger.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/