Customer Reviews

Storm of Steel

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ernst Junger was there for the duration. He was wounded sixteen times, he lost his brother. He experienced the trench war in all its hellish glory. That's the difference between Storm of Steel and other WWI memoires like Farewll to All That, Memoires of an Infantry Officer, No News from the Western Front, etc: Junger is not anti-war; he loved it! Do not expect some dreaming idealist though. Junger was a harsh realist. Nothing is to horrifying for him to tell (and believe me - there are a lot of horrifying detail!). He took part in the major combats on the western front, so we get a rare first hand glimpse of the war, The style is vivd, yet sober. He comes across as a Prussian gentleman, not cruel, but he does what he has to do to survive.
Junger later became one of the finest authors of the twentieth century. He is sadly unknown in the Anglo-Saxon world, in much due to his refusal to distance himself from Hitler (he did not embrace nazism though either). He lived an interesting life; he stopped doing LSD when he turned seventy, and he wrote a major treaty on the role of bugs in heraldry. More of his work deserves to be recognized.

While I was in Iraq a fellow soldier recommended this book to me.
I am somewhat of a history buff and already knew many of the dates, locations and overall strategic picture of "The Great War/War to end all Wars" or WWI.
I found that while the actual physical location Junger faced during his combat differed from mine, the feelings and observations he experienced were remarkably similar to what I felt and observed in Iraq.
Without a doubt this book could not have been written by someone who wasn't there. His descriptive matter-of-fact narrative made WWI come to life to me in ways that other books did not.
It was strangely comforting to me to read about Junger's experience while I was going through my own wartime experience. I found that his acceptance of what he experienced provided great comfort to me and the things I was experiencing. It is very good to know that you are not alone and that the feelings you are experiencing are not unique to you.
Without a doubt this is one of the finest non-fictional accounts of warfare ever available in English. I VERY HIGHLY recommend it for any Soldier or Marine and I am extremely glad I was exposed to this book.
Not for those who mistakenly believe that if you are nice to the world it will automatically be nice to you in return. Definitely for those who are experiencing or have experienced war for themselves.

I have recommended this book as the First World War's "Forgotten Soldier". It is a bit more chivalrous and not as personal as Sajer's work but I feel that being originally published immediatley after the war that is expected. Many compare it to "All Quiet on the Western Front", but if that is looking at the war thru a scope this book is viewing it in 3D color. 90% is battle account and the other 10% is a bit of personal insight on the war. I loved how Junger portrayed his Fusiliers as the transition generation from horse riding warriors to the inevitable trench rat looking up at the occasional French biplane dropping grenades. Great read and may explain more about a war that seems to really be forgotten in US history.

Ernst Jünger, estimated as one of the most famous german wrighters of the 20th century has in fact provided a masterpiece with this book. It shows in an excellent way the spirit of this time, when soldiers went off to war very enthusiastically and were soon cast back to a reality where death ruled. Jünger describes a new kind of warfare, bearing a lot of terror, extinction and mass destruction. In an often criticised cold and unpassioned style the author shows his ideas of real heroism by overcoming ones fear amidst the most horrid circumstances. Jünger always shows his enemies as people whom he was to kill because he was a soldier - like he stated himself he regarded them with fairness and respect and not with hatred. This book is worth to be read over and over again.

As other reviews say it is a classic . Two things set it apart in my mind from other war memoirs: firstly the level of detail of action is unsurpassed. Secondly , Jungers implicit cult of the warrior. He was an honourable soldier but he appears to have reveled in the adventure of war, in fact idealized it. Such attitudes had implications for the next generation of young Germans.

If I were running the American military, every second lieutenant would be required to read this book and Copse 145 or resign his commission.

This book was practically impossible to find for many years, which is remarkable, given its high quality. It is an extraordinary account of personal combat experience from World War I, written by a truly heroic young soldier who was awarded the highest honor for outstanding valour, the Pour le Merite, or Blue Max.

The author, Ernst Juenger, was also a gifted writer who created an incredibly vivid and gripping account of his experiences. The only memoir that deserves to be considered its peer is Erwin Rommel's memoirs of his service as a young officer in World War I , published in English as Infantry Attacks. Rommel also won the Blue Max.

Unlike Rommel's book, which reads like a primer for fighting effectively as an infantry officer, "The Storm of Steel" incorporates an almost philosophical endorsement of the heroic life and its values. This sounds positive, but Juenger vividly portrays what a heroic life is really about: slaughtering other human beings, callousness, incredible courage, disregard for one's own life. In practice, a troubling collection of proficiencies and character traits.

The culture that produced such a cool and talented soldier was also the culture that tragically curdled into the Nazi nightmare. No reader will have the answer to how the two phenemona are connected; no reader should avoid posing the question.

This book is a classic memoir of a First World War German platoon leader in the 111th Division, written in 1920. The only real criticism is lack of any maps, which makes it difficult to identify many of the small villages mentioned in the text. Junger survived on the Western Front from early 1915 to late 1918; he was wounded seven times. Junger was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Pour le Merit. The descriptions of trench warfare are first-rate. There is good human-level detail: drunken behavior, fear, courage, stupidity. The mighty German war machine does not always look so invincible through Junger's eyes. Junger thought highly of the British, but not the French. He doesn't question the reasons for the war, but accepts the result. Throughout the book, Junger's fanatical tone is evident and readers should be aware of Junger's later involvement with the Nazi movement.

Ernst Junger has given us one of the finest WWI documents known to man. His words written with such an eloquence as to make them seem as if they were wrapped in moistened silk. The manner in which he tells of the 4 years that shaped his century long life is something to marvel at in and of itself. Some of the feelings that he puts forth to us are an utter vision of a harrowed soul in a war tattered body wounded 11 times throughout the Great War. To see the war through the steely eyes of the young stormtrooper Ernst Junger is to look out past the rim of your coal scuttle helmet, through the barbed wire, past the endless shell holes and mud, past the crosses which bury the dead,through the mud and fleas and rats and bullets and gas and shells and steel into the heart and spirit of an indomitable and unconquerable soul which embodies and encompasses every fiber of the being that is Ernst Junger. Written in an 19th century style which makes the heart bleed from hunger of memory, Junger reveals all, and places his own cross into the mud of Flanders forever as a testimony to the war to end all wars. He shows us from out of the abyss, what it is like to be crucified. And he is forever proud with limitless respect for his enemies of the war that broke his pride.

This is an excellent document of the experiences that molded young Germans into the non-Nazi right wing. The descriptions of the experience of battle are not as abstract as those of "Battle as Inner Experience", published by EJ in the mid-20's, but they give an excellent concrete insight into the types of situations that created the beliefs of the individual as insignificant in face of the "Idea" (Junger's word for what he fought for). The beliefs in the necessity of self sacrifice and discipline, essential to that side of the German right that did not descend into psychopathy, clearly develop out of the experiences detailed within, and also are seen in germ within the work itself. Reading the book will not only change your ideas of the nature and necessity of war, but will also introduce you to basic concepts that would eventually develop over Junger's long career (since his death, almost all of Junger's books have gone out of print, at least in the English-speaking world. This makes it extremely difficult to locate anything by one of the twentieth century's foremost authors).