The soldier's life in the Hindenburg Trenches, postcard from a drawing by Kurzweg
Hindenburg-Grabenzum FriseurSpeise FettBitte klingelnSoldiers' Life in the Hindenburg trenchto the barbercooking fatplease ring the bell
"At the appointed time, the patrols, some of them already involved in hand-grenade battles with the enemy, withdrew towards the Somme. We were the last to cross the River, before the bridges were blown up by a sapper detachment. Our position was still coming in for drumfire. It wasn't for another few hours that the first enemy outposts reached the Somme. We withdrew behind the Siegfried Line, then still in the process of construction; the battalion took up quarters in the village of Lehaucourt, on the St-Quentin Canal. With my batman, I moved into a cosy little house, whose cupboards and chests were still well supplied. My faithful Knigge would not be persuaded by anything to set up his bed in the warm living room, insisting, as ever, on the chilly kitchen — typical of the restraint of our Lower Saxons."
German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger and his men had covered the withdrawal of German troops during Operation Alberich, the German strategic retreat of 1917 to a shorter, well-entrenched defensive system. The Allies advanced cautiously, into a mined and booby-trapped zone of destruction. Jünger could rest on March 17, 1917. The Siegfried, or Hindenburg, Line was actually a Siegfried Zone of four trench lines.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 130, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1917-03-17, 1917, March, Operation Alberich, Alberich, strategic retreat, Somme, Siegfried Line, Hindenburg Line, Siegfried Zone
