Storm of Steel

After a furlough, Jünger sets up an observation post in the village of Fresnoy, under heavy firing. That night, he sleeps through an artillery barrage:

I had the impression, that night, of hearing a few dull crashing sounds and of Knigge [Jünger’s assistant] calling to me, but I was so fast asleep that I merely mumbled, ‘Oh, let them shoot!’ and turned over on my side, even though the room was as thick with dust as a chalk mill (132).

From his observation post, Jünger watches aerial battles: “Also during these days, there was a whole series of dogfights, which almost inevitably ended with defeat for the British” (133). Anytime Jünger is outside the bomb shelter, he is in danger of being killed:

I left the village at a gallop, as heavy shells had begun to fall. When I was about three hundred yards away, I stopped to watch the clouds thrown up by the spurting explosions […] When a few clusters of small shells began to fall on the narrow footpaths linking Arleux and Fresnoy, I decided I’d seen enough, and cleared the field to avoid being ‘a little bit killed’, as the current expression in the 2nd company had it (134).