'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916, presumably pictured with his machine gun crew. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.

'Warmest regards from the Somme . . . ' from Robert Künger, September 21, 1916. Translation couresy of Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust.

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Sunday, July 29, 1917

"High-explosive shells of quite exceptional ferocity were coming down all the time, one of which just missed killing me that evening.

Towards morning, the machine-gun suddenly started rattling away, as some dark figures were approaching. It was a patrol from the 76th Regiment come to get in touch with us, and one of them was left dead. Mistakes like that happened quite frequently at that time, and one didn't spend too much time anguishing over them."

Quotation Context

German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger left Cambrai, France on June 25, 1917, ordered to Flanders, where the British artillery bombardment in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, was in progress.

Source

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 165, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003

Tags

1917-07-29, 1917, July, Flanders, German machine gun squad, Battle of Passchendaele, Passchendaele, Third Ypres, Third Battle of Ypres