An aerial observer or pilot in flight helmet and overcoat reports to a German General and his staff at a division's combat headquarters on March 21, 1918, the first day of Operation Michael, Germany's spring offensive, the first of five German drives in 1918.
Reverse (handwritten):21. 3. 18.Division Combat HQ
"The watch-hands moved round; we counted off the last few minutes. At last, it was five past five. The tempest was unleashed.A flaming curtain went up, followed by unprecedentedly brutal roaring. A wild thunder, capable of submerging even the loudest detonations in its rolling, made the earth shake. The gigantic roaring of the innumerable guns behind us was so atrocious that even the greatest of the battles we had experienced seemed like a tea party by comparison. What we hadn't dared hope for happened: the enemy artillery was silenced; a prodigious blow had laid it out. We felt too restless to stay in the dugout. Standing out on top, we gasped at the colossal wall of flame over the English lines, gradually obscuring itself behind crimson, surging clouds."
German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger describing the preliminary bombardment opening what he elsewhere refers to as German commander Erich Ludendorff's, and Germany's, 'mighty do-or-die offensive', Operation Michael. Jünger was leading his company forward to a reserve position on the night of March 19, 1918 when they were hit by a shell killing or wounding much of his company. Before the shell struck, Jünger had 150 men. The next day he was able to collect 63. On March 21st, German troops hit the British line, striking the Third and Fifth Armies. The Third held; the Fifth did not.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 228–229, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1918-03-21, 1918, March, Operation Michael, Kaiserschlacht, bombardment, preliminary bombardment
