Product Description

A memoir of astonishing power, savagery and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel depicts Ernst Junger's experience of combat in the German front line - leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, and simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart. One of the greatest books to emerge from the catastrophe of the First World War, it illuminates like no other book not only the horrors but also the fascination of a war that made men keep fighting on for four long years.

A new translation by Michael Hoffman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16070 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Evening Standard, August 18, 2003 (by Richard Holmes)
"This is unquestionably one of the most striking accounts of the First World War..."

Telegraph, August 23, 2003 (by Daniel Johnson)
"What raises Jünger to the level of epic is the grandeur of the prose, which is sublime but never sentimental."

Telegraph, August 24, 2003 (by Tibor Fischer)
"Ernst Jünger is unarguably an original…"

Customer Reviews

Sheer onomatopoeia
The introduction is sheer onomatopoeia - simply brilliant. This is not a critique of war; it's a highly readable diary of a born soldier. Honour and confidence in the fine, strapping young me of Germany means that Jünger just relates what happened to him: the 11 times over four years that he was shot or hit by shrapnel. It is, needless to say that it's a miracle he survived the whole war on the Western Front. He had so many near misses that he doesn't need to say war is a monster: it's (unwittingly?) implicit. The growing mechanisation of the war towards the end - tanks and bombing raids - is noted by Jünger, who laments that it was proof of the enemy's superiority. Is there a better first-hand account of WWI out there? I doubt it.

A good read. A Bad man.
I enjoyed reading this (a couple of years back now), but what has stayed with me is a dislike of Junger. I can't be the only one to believe that he enjoyed fighting and killing other men, can I?

Still, a very good read and an antidote to all the revisionist claptrap that tends to hog the headlines. Junger saw his duty as to kill the eemy and took to it with single-minded determination. The translation is excellent.

You may also want to read "Old Soliders Never Die" by Frank Richards for the polar opposite- a fighting Tommy with a sense of humour who also survived the war.

Seriously younger
Along with All Quiet on the Western front it should be compulsory reading for any head of state, or government, considering war. A very modern book in tone, it's open and honest description of trench live in The Great War makes it a fresh read. I've read several books on more recent conflicts that feel more dated (I don't speak German, so the modern translation may play a part). Junger's depiction of events is vivid, when he finds his injured brother at the front it felt like a plot device from a novel, the only difference being it happened. His likening of being shelled to being tied to a post and having a sledgehammer repeatedly aimed at your head, but it just missing every time, is an image that will stay with me. As a memoir of an infantry leader I think it takes some beating.