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Ernst JungerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Near Regniéville, Jünger finds himself in the trenches again, where he contends with lice and poor food. When on reserve, Jünger enjoys himself in a blockhouse hidden deep in the woods, where he comes up “with just the right peaceful sort of drink: a fifty-fifty mixture of red wine and advocaat in a big-bellied glass” (182).
Soon Jünger strikes up a friendship with an older NCO (non-commissioned officer) named Kloppmann, and they go out at night in an attempt to take French prisoners, until they are fired upon and must turn back. A few days later Jünger is put in charge of a patrol designed to take French prisoners. For 10 days, Jünger’s hand-picked men practice throwing hand-grenades and rehearsing the raid, but when they finally reach the French trenches, they become confused. The first trenches are empty. Hand-grenades explode to their left, where one part of the patrol has gone, but Jünger pushes deeper into the trenches, becoming more confused: “After running down a series of cross and parallel trenches, no one knew where we were, or where the German lines were” (187). To salvage the mission, Jünger attempts to take a French machine gun, but is forced to retreat.