Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ernst Juenger
Creator: Michael Hofmann
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 11753
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0142437905
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.4144092
EAN: 9780142437902
ASIN: 0142437905
Publication Date: May 4, 2004
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Product Description
A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Juenger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict butmore importantlyas a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Juenger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure. Published shortly after the wars end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmanns brilliant new translation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 All Noisy on the Western Front June 11, 2008
a straight-forward soldier's book who went through the whole war in the front lines. pleasingly free of the political whining and hand-wringing the saturates so many of the accounts written by 'our side' about this bloody and pointless conflict. the narrative touches on all aspects of the military experience of a member of the pbi (poor bloody infantry) and can serve for those on any side or army in this meat grinder of a war. i've been reading books on war for about 50 years at the clip of a couple a week and rate this book in the top three personal accounts - a truly excellent work.
Harrowing and unforgettable May 6, 2008
This is an amazing book to read. Junger was a stormtrooper--the German soldiers who lead the first wave into the trenches--for something like four years. It seems extraordinary that anyone could have survived such a holocaust, let alone four years of it. There is very little in the way of emotional expression in this book, or personal or political observation. Junger devoted his writing to the material details of the battle. This book takes you right into it with unforgettable detail--the acrid smoke, the seemingly ceaseless rain of artillery. More of Jungers men seem to be felled by German artillery than the opposition. Junger describes a scene in which a battery is destroyed and a single horse survives, fleeing across the desolate landscape, "a white ghostly figure." From the very first minutes on the line, artillery remained a constant danger for these men. The book describes harrowing scenes of shootouts with snipers and machine gunners, shooting men at pointblank range with pistols. One scene describes a group of British cornered in a trench. Junger's men throw grenades into the trench. After each blast, helmets, rags of body parts, and blood flies up in the air. His unit moves forward to the edge of the smoking trench to finish the British off, only to be mowed down by British rifle fire as they prepare to fire. This is combat at its most intense! An ungorgettable read that takes you into the eye of the storm of steel. Definitely, good reading. You won't be able to put it down.
BUY THIS BOOK! April 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
At first I thought this book was going to turn out to be one of those books that were written at a different time that just couldnt have a style to keep readers this day and age interested. I was wrong. Junger has a style all his own and you will feel has if you are the one standing in his boots through all the epic battles and hardships. You can almost see the mortor shells landing around him with all the carnage that goes with them. You will feel happy when he triumphs, and sad when men are there one minute and gone forever the next. This book will only get better the further you get into and the ending I will admit put a tear to my eye, this man deserved everything he earned and more. His final battle is one you will not be able to put down. I found my self reading paragraphs two and even three times over again convincing my self that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. This book is a must have for anyone who is even mildly interested in combat novels.
Storm of Steel is a harrowing memoir of life in the World War I Trenches of France and Belgium November 28, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Ernst Junger lived a long and literary life. He was born in Heidelberg in 1895 and died there 103 years later! Junger ran away from home at 14 to become a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm's army. He wrote several novels following World War I, refused to be a Nazi member and is well known in Europe. Storm of Steel was his first and best known book.
The first person account of trench warfare in World War I is related by Lt. Junger with descriptive prose worthy of a fine novelist. We as his readers experience all the horror, terror, fear, mud, slime, filth and death which were the soldiers daily challenges. Junger served on the Western Front from 1914-1918 miraculously surviving at least 14 wounds! Junger was a patriotic German who respected his British and French foes as men of courageous valor and courage. He impresses this reviewer as someone who considered soldiering a duty to be endured for a land he loved.
This true story is filled with countless stories of good men killed in an instant due to a shell or poison gas. We see deep trenches filled with death, stench and rats. We feel what it was like to go over the top into the forbidding No-Man's land. The landscape drawn by Junger resembles Dante's descriptions of hell. In the wasteland of war Lt. Junger found time to listen to the birds or appreciate a beautiful sky but the majority of the book is a grim recounting of what war is like for the men who are called upon to fight and die for their nation. Junger loved his troops and grieved when they were killed. We catch the small moments of smoking a pipe, reading "Tristam Shandy", enjoying a cup of coffee and enjoying a night at the tavern with fellow soldiers. We see Junger fighting on the Somme and Flanders as he won the Iron Cross and several other military awards. Despite the medals this realist paints a sobering lurid portrait of modern war where steel metal, tank and huge artillery pieces determine the victor in battle.
Storm of Steel is not for the squeamish but is the best first person account of combat in World War I. It is also of interest because it allows the English speaking reader to see what was going on in the German army in this holocaust which killed over ten million men in the modern cesspool of mechanized warfare.
MUST READ for anyone interested in WWI November 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Storm of Steel" is the definitive eye-witness account of trench warfare in WWI from a German soldier's perspective. Without swagger, bluster or biais Junger recounts in his own simple style what it was like to join up and fight, the morale of his friends over the years, the simple day to day experiences, the images ... what it was like to fight the French compared with the English ... but never with a word towards the strategy or politics of the war. Junger was a born warrior and lied about his age to ship off with the Foreign Legion in North Africa before WWI. His father went to get him. When the war began in Europe Junger couldn't be held back. By 1918 Junger had been wounded several times and had become a junior officer. He earned all the top combat awards including the "Pour le Merite" (aka "Blue Max"). Storm of Steel was to be the first of many books for Junger, who became a writer and lived almost to the end of the century. There is a moving picture of him standing with Kohl and Mitterand during the ceremonies at Verdun commemorating the war and renewed Franco-German amity. Although Hitler was, liked many of his generation, quite moved by Junger's heroic approach to his wartime experiences, Junger didn't join the Nazi party and was side-lined in WWII. He spent the war in large part in Paris, where he led a curious existence serving his country behind a desk but also in the company of the many artists and intellectuals who were his friends. Junger's son died on the Eastern Front. Junger kept journals his entire life and they are a fascinating read, especially the volumes concerning the phony war, the march on Paris, and the occupation. Viewing the events from the pov of an eloquent humanitarian like Junger is priceless. A friend knew him well and recounted the following anecdote ... my friend was driving Junger through Paris in the 90's and the streets were blocked with traffic. Junger commented that it was much easier to get around during the war (tongue in cheek since there were practically no cars in Paris during the Occupation other than those of the Occupiers; the rest of Paris was riding a bicycle!) I have read "In Stahlgewittern" several times in the French translation, I own a 1940s German edition autographed by Junger, and now I've reread the book in English. It's slightly different of course but still as powerful and fresh as the first time I read it over 20 years ago. The preface is very interesting, contains essential information and should not be skipped.
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