Allied soldiers fortifying shell craters after an advance. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot, 1918 Edition.
A startling new situation confronted the Allies in their recent advance against the Germans. They are fortifying in a concealed way chains of shell craters due to intensive artillery firing of months.
"On 12 November [1916], hoping for better luck, I undertook my second mission, which was to test the communications between units in our crater positions. A chain of relays concealed in foxholes led me to my destination.The term 'crater positions' was accurate. On a ridge outside the village of Rancourt, there were numerous craters scattered, some occupied by a few soldiers here and there. The dark plain, criss-crossed by shells, was barren and intimidating. . . .By the time I emerged from the woods, it was day. The cratered field stretched out ahead of me, apparently endlessly, with no sign of life. I paused, because unoccupied terrain is always a sinister thing in a war."
German Ensign Ernst Jünger was wounded by shrapnel in September, 1916. During the month he was either in hospital or recuperating, his unit was wiped out in fighting at Guillemont in the Battle of the Somme. After his return in November, he was stationed by the woods of St-Pierre-Vaast, ten kilometers north of Péronne and the Somme River. In 'hoping for better luck' Jünger refers to the night (a few before) he stumbled into the woods and a British phosgene gas attack. The night of November 12, immediately after our extract, he was hit by a sniper's bullet that went through one calf and grazed the other, and spent another two weeks recuperating.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 114–115, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1916-11-12, 1916, November, Battle of the Somme, Somme
