Storm of Steel

by Ernst Jünger

Storm of Steel is the memoir of his personal observations and feelings recorded during the WWI. Ernst Jünger volunteered as a private in German army and soon after became an officer. He was wounded during the four years of war more than a dozen times.

Personal experiences are so well described that anyone reading the Storm of Steel will get a first hand glimpse of the war, not only WWI but, as many soldiers who personally have experienced the combat and horrors of war may agree, any war fought since then.

Excerpt from the book

after 4 years of the war Ernst Jünger writes:

The day before my arrival, admittedly, a bomb had gone off just outside the window, which had hurled the master of the home, who had been sleeping in my bed, clear across the room, broken off one bedpost, and riddled the walls. It was, perversely, this circumstance that gave me a feeling of security, because I did at least partly subscribe to the old warrior’s superstition that the safest to be is in a new crater.”

Translation from German to English by Michael Hofmann

P.S. Would like to get hands on 1924 version that was translated to English by Basil Creighton.