1915 pencil sketch by Alois Gruber of a German soldier with his rifle crawling through grass.
Geschreiben den . . . 1915Alois Gruber1915
"It was round about then [February 1, 1916] too that an NCO with the 6th, whom I knew well, and whose brother had fallen only days before, was fatally injured by a 'toffee-apple' that he had found. He had unscrewed the fuse, and, noticing that the greenish powder he tipped out was highly inflammable, he put a lit cigarette in at the opening. The mortar of course blew up, and he received fifty separate wounds. We suffered many casualties from the over-familiarity engendered by daily encounters with gunpowder."
Ensign Ernst Jünger's unit was stationed in Monchy-le-Preux, France, a dozen kilometers east of the city of Arras, facing the British lines.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 60, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1916-02-01, 1916, February, Junger, Jünger, explosion
