Picked this up as one to read to cover some of the classic recounts of WWII and WWI. This one from the German POV of trench warfare was written by a man who would go on to become considered one of Germany’s leading philosopher’’s of the 20th century. He also had an incredible record of being involved on the front lines of many of the major battles of WWI and somehow surviving.
Wounded more than half a dozen times, receiving numerous medals from on high, and advancing through the ranks without becoming disconnected from them, Junger has the firsthand experience to relay to the reader just what those experiences were like in all their dirty horror. Unfortunately, whether it is due to translation or the actual author, the work doesn’t carry the weight or clarity I expected. A similar book in its POV would be the WWII memoir The Forgotten Soldier covering a German’s recount of the retreat from Russia. This second noted work is fantastic and written with the deft hand of a novelist whereas (for whatever reason) Storm of Steel reads more like a dry journalist’s recount of dates and times without connection between the events that are relayed.
Merely stating “I went here, there were lots of shelling, we hid in a trench, 3 of my soldiers were killed, we left and spent time in town X for three days” and then a few pages later relaying “We then moved to the Somme were things were really bad and the shelling was really bad with parts of shells flying all over” doesn’t do much for me. Nor is there much higher level strategic review…there is no concept here of how the events related connect to the war overall or where each action fits into ongoing efforts. It also didn’t offer me much in the way of new info on the front line soldiers experience. We all know the trenches were wet, filled with bodies and rats, and a terribly miserable experience on both sides. There just weren’t any true revelations here, nor were the rudimentary day to day events of trench warfare relayed in a manner that is either more clear or more emotionally impactful. As I stated…this is no work of a brilliant novelist, it is just a minimally massaged diary of day to day drudgery.
I do lay some of the blame here at the foot of the translators and the editor and printer. The number of typos and just plain wrong word usage in the version I had were terrible. Every page (almost literally) had errors I had to go back and reread or reform in order to make sense. Given the work is of an age it lies in the public realm, the version I consumed was likely poorly put together and some of my dissatisfaction is in the effort to quickly produce a cheap version for Amazon sales. Perhaps other versions were better…perhaps not.
End recommendation? Go read The Forgotten Soldier and spend time somewhere other than this.