Trench fighting is the bloodiest, wildest, most brutal of all… Of all the war’s exciting moments none is so powerful as the meeting of two storm troop leaders between narrow trench walls. There’s no mercy there, no going back, the blood speaks from a shrill cry of recognition that tears itself from one’s breast like a nightmare. –Ernst Junger, The Storm of Steel, 1929

Ernst Junger, German author of one of the most famous books on World War I, The Storm of Steel–From the Diary of a German Storm-Troop Officer on the Western Front (1929), in which he describes the life of a soldier, the brutality of trench warfare and the act of killing on the battlefields in France and Belgium in a detailed and matter-of-fact manner.

This classic memoir is a must-read for military historians, policy makers, and anyone interested in learning about war and the experiences of the soldiers fighting a war.