Storm of Steel: The Great Battle Summary & Analysis

On their way to the front lines of the big offensive in late March, the men lose their way in the boggy landscape. Suddenly, a shell explodes in their midst. Instinctively, Jünger wants to flee the horrifying scene, but he returns to tend to his suffering men. Some of his most beloved men, gravely injured, cling to Jünger and call his name, but he has to leave them in the care of the stretcher-bearer. “Moments like that,” he observes, “are not easily shaken off.”

Jünger and his few remaining men wander the trenches in confusion for several hours, finally taking shelter in some cubby-holes meant for munitions. After being reunited with others from his battalion the next morning, he decides that he will never again entrust his men to any guide he hasn’t chosen himself.

Depressed from the disastrous events, Jünger dreads being summoned to the front line again, but he goes. Shortly before the next morning’s attack, it’s announced that the Kaiser and Hindenburg are on the battle’s scene of operations, and everyone applauds. Right on time, a thunderous barrage is unleashed, silencing the enemy artillery. Though the men’s spirits begin to rise, the eventual shellfire is sobering, and Schmidt is killed.

When the moment for the attack comes, the men are eager, and Jünger feels confident that they have the strength to strike a decisive blow against the enemy. The moment feels historic. As masses of men begin charging toward enemy lines, Jünger feels overcome by rage and the desire to kill. He comments that an outsider might have thought the sobbing men were all “ecstatically happy.”

Though no one opposes them as they leap into the British trench, they’re soon met by machine-gun fire. As he penetrates deeper into the trench, Jünger finds himself alone.  He soon encounters a lone British soldier. Jünger feels a cold relief at finally confronting an enemy face to face, but to his surprise, the man suddenly pulls out a photograph of himself with his family. Jünger lets him go and later dreams of the man, hoping he got to rejoin his loved ones.

Jünger’s memories of the attack fade in and out. He does recall killing a British machine gunner, and soon after, masses of British and German collide with one another, shooting at point-blank range—something he’s never witnessed in the war before. Before long, the British are on the run, and the Germans keep shooting, knowing they’ve gained the upper hand. By this time, there’s no need for formal leadership; all the Germans charge onward as one. As Jünger takes out another determined British machine-gun nest, he casually observes that the vigorous exercise seems to have gotten rid of his nagging cold.

After a brief moment of refreshment with the other surviving officers, Jünger and the rest continue their advance, receiving many British surrenders and shooting those who resist. Jünger forces himself to look closely at one young British soldier he has shot. Over the years, sorrow and regret haunt his dreams of this boy.

The men have little opportunity to rest. Early the next day, they’re ordered to storm the nearby village of Vracourt. One of Jünger’s former drill instructors is killed. Eventually, it’s decided that the position is sufficiently secure, so Jünger hunkers in a crater to enjoy some English jam and pull on some Scottish woolen socks. Later in the day, however, there are signs of a strong British counterattack. After nightfall, Jünger and his men get in an intense firefight with some scrappy Scottish highlanders.

At one point, Jünger flings his rifle aside and plunges into the enemy line with his bare fists—forgetting that he’s wearing an English coat he’d nabbed from a captured trench. After scattering the Scots, Jünger is chatting with Kius when they both notice he is bleeding from the chest—likely shot by a German who mistook him for English. He starts carefully making his way back for medical attention.

Suddenly, as he’s making his way across a trench, Jünger gets a blow on the skull and, when he comes to, he sees an alarming flow of blood beneath him. His companion assures Jünger that he sees no brains, so Jünger calmly continues on his way, figuring that’s what he gets for neglecting to wear a steel helmet. “In spite of my twofold haemhorrage,” he recalls, “I was terribly excited.”

Jünger is transported to a field hospital, where he finds that his orderly, Vinke, has made sure that Jünger’s baggage is waiting for him. He remarks that Vinke taught him about “the stolidity and decency of the common people.” While healing in Germany, he learns that his faithful Schultz had fallen in the fighting. Before long, he also gathers that, despite the tremendous effort made in the offensive, Germany is actually losing the war.