Wooden cigarette box carved by Г. САВИНСКИ (?; G. Savinskiy), a Russian POW. The Grim Reaper strides across a field of skulls on the cover. The base includes an intricate carving of the years of war years, '1914' and, turning it 90 degrees, '1918.'

ПДМЯТЬ ВОИНЬ 1914-18



To the memory of the soldiers 1914-18



Reverse:

1914

1918

Г. САВИНСКИ (?)

G. Savinskaya

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Tuesday, June 18, 1918

"In the afternoon, I took a solitary walk through the devastated village of Puisieux. It had already received a hammering in the course of the battles of the Somme. The craters and ruins had been overgrown with thick grass, dotted about here and there with the gleaming white plates of elderflower, which loves ruins. Numerous fresh explosions had ripped holes in the cover, and exposed the soil all over again.

The main village street was lined with the debris of our recent stalled advance. Shot-up wagons, discarded munitions, rusty pistols and the outlines of half-decomposed horses, seen through fizzing clouds of dazzling flies, commented on the nullity of everything in battle. All that was left of the church standing on the highest spot of the village was a wretched heap of stones. While I picked a bunch of half-wild roses, landing shells reminded me to be careful in this place where Death danced."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger's memoir Storm of Steel. Jünger was wounded on the third day of Germany's Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, in March, 1918, the 'recent stalled advance' he refers to. He returned to his regiment on June 4. The Battle of the Somme, a Franco-British offensive, began on July 1, 1916. Puisieux, France, is 40 km northeast of Amiens, and north of the Somme River.

Source

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 262–263, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003

Tags

1918-06-18, 1918, June, Puisieux, Death