KRIEG (War)

by Ludwig Renn

“It’s time to eat!”

  We formed in a long line.

  I had already received my food when a runner came. “Orders from battalion: The companies are to march immediately in this direction!”

  “Close the lid!” ordered Lamm.

  “But the food will not keep till morning, Herr Leutnant,” said one of the cooks. “We will have to throw it out!”

  “Throw it out!” said Lamm coldly.

  I tried to eat a spoonful from my mess gear. However, it was too hot. So I emptied it onto the meadow. In haste we packed our equipment and assembled in formation.

  “Here through the alder bushes!” ordered Lamm impatiently. We pressed our way through the thick limbs. On the other side was a wrinkled slope of meadow with forest right above it. Two companies of our battalion were already moving across the folds in the meadow like caterpillars. Farther to the left a battery was moving forward at a gallop. The mounted drivers were beating the horses with whips.

  On a rise a general stood with a couple of officers and looked through a telescope toward the front.

  “Now this is something!” I said to our platoon leader, who was walking beside me. “Here are troops for a counterattack!”

  The platoon leader looked at me with empty eyes. “Will we come back?”

  “Yes,” I said and looked toward the front. But I noticed how his eyes hung on my face. Everyone has to come to terms with the fear on his own, I thought; I can’t help you. I cannot allow myself to be held up by you.

  We came to a graveled ditch. Lamm called the platoon leaders together. “We will attack early in the morning in the twilight. Therefore, as soon as it gets dark we will move into a prepared position a little farther ahead.”

  The platoon leaders went their ways silently.

  We waited for it to grow dark. Haensel lay on his back beside me at the edge of a graveled ditch. The sun still shone but was not warming. Two German airplanes flew one behind the other over us at medium height. One could clearly see the black crosses under the yellow wings.

  Suddenly the sun disappeared behind the pines and it began very slowly to grow dark.

  “Platoons get ready! The first platoon, follow me!” said Lamm and moved slowly ahead. Directly ahead of the graveled ditch the woods became lighter. There was the beginning of a deep, wide trench. We climbed in and pushed ourselves slowly forward. The fourth company was ahead of us and they appeared to be held up by some sort of obstacle. There were shots at different points.

  “I am wounded, Herr Leutnant,” our platoon leader said suddenly. I had not heard any shooting where we were.

  “Where are you hit?” asked Lamm.

  “In the leg.” He leaned on the wall of the trench.

  “I hope you are better soon! Unteroffizier Sander, take over the first platoon!”

  Suddenly the company ahead of us started moving. We went quickly around a corner. The trench led steeply upwards into a plot of ground. A shell struck below and then another one, always at a regular interval. Suddenly the trench was blocked with broken-up wood and dirt. Lamm climbed out on the right. Maybe three hundred meters ahead of us, something was burning with a red glow. That’s where the spaced shells were landing.

  We walked around the blockage and again into the trench. The end of the fourth company disappeared, running ahead of us. The burning place was only a hundred paces away. Lamm began to run.

  The next artillery round!

  “Make way!” someone screamed. A chain of people came running toward us, maybe those sent to bring food forward, and pressed Lamm against the wall. I received a blow on the chest from one of them in his haste. There were about ten men. We continued to run ahead.

  Boom, close ahead of us.

  The trench was flat here. The glow made the surrounding area black. I moved uncertainly. It was a wagon burning.

  We moved past!

  A shell behind us!

  Then up the other slope!

  “Over here!” said the voice of our battalion commander from outside the trench.

  We climbed out.

  “Set yourselves up here for the night as well as possible!”

  There were two ditches there only about knee deep, but wide enough to hold two platoons.

  “The first and second platoons in here! Leave room for me and my runners and the medical personnel!” said Lamm.

  Sander came.

  “You’re leading the platoon,” I said.

  “Will we attack immediately?” he asked, terrified.

  “No, early in the morning. You have to appoint the places for the squads.” He looked at me helplessly. I noticed that he couldn’t even think because of the fear.

  “Shall I do it for you?”

  He looked at me without comprehension.

  “I will divide up the places,” I said.

  After about a half hour we lay pressed together in shelter halves, coats, and blankets in the open ditch. The sky was black. Now and then a star appeared and then disappeared again.

  The air was moist and empty with cold. Haensel lay beside me and breathed. He wasn’t yet asleep. Was he not afraid? He was completely different from me and all others I knew. And also Lamm appeared to have no fear. Are these completely different people who don’t know fear?

  Wham! A shell landed close to us.

  Then further up the slope another one!

  There was a rock under my back and it pressed into me. I was freezing and unsettled. Maybe when one is completely frozen through the peace will come where one doesn’t care anymore. In the early morning—if one only knew how the area looks where we are going to attack!

  Wham!

  IV

  “The companies should prepare to move, Herr Leutnant!”

  It was pitch black. Everyone got up without having to be awakened. Silently they strapped on their shelter halves, blankets, and coats.

  “Second platoon ready?”

  “Yes, Herr Major!”

  “The second battalion is attacking. We will be in reserve—it may become a very painful day.”

  We moved a distance to the right to a dark, steep slope.

  “Set up here! We can expect artillery fire.”

  We spread out along the slope. There were already holes dug some thirty centimeters deep.

  “You, Haensel, we’ll prepare the hole here for the both of us!”

  We unbuckled our spades and enlarged the hole. In front of the slope there was a sloping meadow with young fir trees on it. Behind us it was level for about the width of a street. Machine guns were set up over to the right. On the other side of the level strip the ground appeared to slope downward. In the twilight there was nothing else to see.

  To the right there were a couple of rifle shots! Through the trees I could see star shells falling like grapes.

  Machine guns rattled!

  Rattling rifle fire!

  Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Behind us in the ground.

  Bam! Bam! Whap! Crackle! Zip! There were sparks on the ground.

  I let the spade fall and jumped in the hole. Haensel was already scrunching up on the left. It was crowded for our legs.

  Across the way someone screamed.

  Someone walked by outside the hole.

  The shells distanced themselves up the slope.

  I raised my head.

  Behind the trees there were again falling star shells.

  Wham! Very close. The noise rushed in my ears.

  I ducked my head.

  Immediately there was a noticeable sound close by, not completely like something breaking and not like a regular shell explosion.

  “Renn,” said Haensel.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “I just wanted to know how you are.”

  There was an intense noise close by!

  I saw a blackish-brown cloud standing on the slope and then moving on. That one really hit hard!

  People ran by.

  The shells moved back up the slope and came less often.


  Someone came and looked in our hole. It was Lamm.

  “I just wanted to see how it’s going with you.”

  He smiled, pale in the twilight.

  I climbed out and looked in the hole next to us, where the unusual noise was. There was a dark blanket under which someone whimpered.

  “What’s wrong with you then?”

  He didn’t answer. Then I noticed that the blanket had a large, ragged hole.

  I lifted the blanket up somewhat.

  I saw Sander’s face and at the same time red flesh, so uneven and I didn’t want to accept it—he was dying.

  I had to see to the squad.

  Weickert was sitting in his hole and appeared horrified.

  “Were you here alone?”

  “No, Elsner was here too.”

  “And what happened to him?”

  “It tore open his skull. Everything was open.”

  “Is he still alive?”

  “I don’t know. He just calmly walked away. It was horrible!”

  Weickert stared at me with wide, open eyes.

  A little bit further they were bandaging. There was a whole group either wounded or dead.

  I looked around. Again star shells came falling down.

  “Into your holes!” I screamed and ran toward our hole. But Haensel wasn’t there.

  People came running toward me.

  One held a red hand in the air like a torch.

  Boom! Bam! Wham! Zing! Whir!

  Two officers came by. One was our Colonel. He walked upright. The other looked around fearfully.

  Wham! Bam! Blam! Zing!

  The attack must have gone wrong!

  Pieces of rock flew around.

  I ducked deeper in the hole.

  What is Haensel doing still out there?

  Shells crashed and crashed, sometimes nearer and sometimes farther away.

  Gray clouds from explosions blew over us.

  The smell of powder grew stronger.

  There was a blow on my scrunched-up knee! Something fell down.

  I reached for it and jerked back. It was glowing hot. Someone walked by screaming. It wasn’t Haensel.

  That the splinter didn’t injure me was due to the folded cloth over my knee. One had to lay his blanket loosely over himself.

  I took Haensel’s blanket and examined the shell splinter with it. It was about the size of a dagger blade and had two ragged edges.

  I heard a wooden sound coming, growing sharper:

  Whap!

  That must have been a heavy miss-fire.

  Whee–zoom–poom–poom!

  The earth trembled.

  No, that was a very heavy shell that exploded in the ground.

  There were screams at a number of places.

  An impact on my blanket! The splinter was only as big as a pencil eraser.

  The smell of powder grew ever stronger.

  I looked at my watch. They had been firing now for an hour without pause. Is it going to go the whole day like this? And when one is—. Yes, one has to come to terms with it.

  One came in, Wheee–ooo.

  Mud balls fell on my blanket.

  If one is wounded, then he can get out of here. But, that isn’t right. You have to hold out.

  Whamm! I jumped.

  Why am I so frightened? If I—but where is Haensel?

  It appeared to be letting up.

  I raised myself up.

  A couple of rounds still fell to the earth. It was very light. The sun appeared to be trying to shine through.

  “Have any of you seen Haensel?” I asked Brand.

  “No.”

  I was paralyzed with shock.

  “Hey, come here!” called Hartenstein. “We’ve found a rations depot with soda water and Zwieback. It’s a little musty though.”

  He held out a bag of the Zwieback to me.

  “Have you by chance seen Haensel?”

  “No.”

  I took the Zwieback and a bottle of soda water.

  Lamm came along. “There are heavy loses in the fourth company. Our battalion commander and the commander of the second company are wounded.”

  “And how are things with the attack?”

  “It completely failed; almost all the leaders are dead. In the darkness they went too far to the right and were walking almost parallel with the French. The remains are lying in shell holes right in front of the French.”

  “Careful!” I screamed. “It’s starting up again!” I could see the flares again falling like bunches of grapes.

  We sprang back in the holes.

  Shells whined. Splinters fluttered and whined above us. Heavy shells came roaring in and shook the earth and threw mud all around. I had laid myself as deep in the hole as possible and nibbled on the Zwieback.

  Maybe the medics will know what has happened to Haensel.

  I thought the fire was weaker than the last time. It lasted until ten minutes past twelve.

  I climbed out of the hole the same time as Lamm.

  Vizefeldwebel Poehner from the second platoon came creeping along and sank to his knees in front of Lamm. He held his hands on his breast.

  “Herr Leutnant,” he moaned, “I—a shell struck me in the chest—I—”

  “Don’t talk,” said Lamm. “You don’t need to apologize.—Renn, take the sergeant to the medical bunker!”

  I took him by the arm and led him to the lower slope. There I would climb down a step and then help him. He almost couldn’t go.

  I sat Poehner at the entrance. He was pretty well protected there.

  “Have you seen anything of Haensel?”

  “Yes, he is right here. But,” whispered the stretcher bearer, “You can only speak a little bit with him. It tore out half his rear end.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “The joint seems to be all right, but it is a terribly big wound.”

  I went deeper into the gallery. He was lying on his stomach on a wooden bunk with his boots toward me.

  “Haensel!” I called softly.

  He turned his head and looked at me. “It is good of you to come, but you should go. You have things to do and you will also come through it.”

  I couldn’t answer because of a feeling of apprehension.

  Outside it was very bright. A few bare birches still stood on the slope.

  Lamm called me. There were already two others standing with him.

  “We have to form the company anew. Three platoon leaders and a third of the company are gone. Unteroffizier Renn will take over the first and second platoons that have suffered the greatest losses as the new platoon Renn. The third platoon will keep Vizefeldwebel Trepte. The fourth will be taken over by Unteroffizier Langenohl. But there is still a problem. Unteroffizier Busch has more time in grade than Renn. However, he has just come into the field. I cannot give him a platoon in such circumstances. He will join platoon Trepte. I will discuss it with him personally. In the meantime everyone should take care not to say anything bad about Busch!”

  I reorganized my squads and chose Israel and Wolf as platoon runners and placed them in the now empty hole next to mine in order to have them handy for messages.

  The artillery fire started up again.

  The smell of shells, explosions, flying mud!

  After a half hour it began to let up. Blankets were lying all over, digging tools, steel helmets, gas masks, belts, rifles, hand grenades, packs, and bloody scraps of cloth. In one hole a splinter struck a hand grenade on a man’s belt and it had ripped his body open. The other man in the hole walked around screaming, not knowing what he was doing. I had him taken away, because he could have unconsciously gone anywhere.

  Again the shells crashed and whined.

  Someone came running, screaming.

  I looked out. It was lieutenant Hornung.

  “Have you still got room here? It’s too terrible over there!”

  “Over there, Herr Leutnant!” I called.

  Actually there was room
in my hole, but I didn’t want to have him there.

  He sat over there and screamed at every round.

  The barrage lasted only a little while.

  “Israel, did you hear,” said Wolf in his slow speech, “how the Leutnant from the second screamed?” None of ours would do such a thing, although they have no greater responsibility!”

  “Oh, be quiet!” said Israel.

  The sun was just going down. And again I saw the glowing grapes.

  I ran back.

  It exploded, pounded, and shook.

  Zing! One went close by my head into the ground.

  Wham! Bam! Wham!

  I scrunched down deeper.

  It roared in my ears.

  Something struck me on the helmet.

  I pulled the blanket completely over me.

  Wham! Zing! Zip! Rumble! Zoom! Ka-wham! Ping!

  My God, but it is horrible!

  I curled into a ball. And if one is hit—you know nothing more—also there is no pain—it is simply the end! Then what is there about it that’s so terrible?

  ——————————

  “Who is this here asleep?”

  “It’s Unteroffizier Renn, Herr Leutnant! He has been asleep through the whole barrage,” said Israel.

  “He’s been able to sleep through that?” said Lamm.

  Under the blanket I couldn’t see anything. However, I could hear several others whispering and everyone was amazed.

  I remained so until everyone had left and then pushed the blanket back.

  It was night. Above me the stars were sparkling. It must have been cold. However, I felt both warm and well.

  They were carrying wounded past. I stood up, still completely astounded that I had fallen asleep.

  I heard Israel talking animatedly and went over to him.

  “I have arranged,” he said, “for the groups to report the daily losses while you were sleeping.” Suddenly he began to laugh a little bit. “How were you able to sleep with all that noise? We all stood at your hole and the whole company says you are indestructible.”

  V

  Around midnight Lamm sent for us platoon leaders.

  “The advanced parts of the regiment will now be pulled back. Then, we here will be the most forward line. Platoons Trepte and Langenohl will occupy the steep slope here. Platoon Renn will place itself in the gap between here and the neighboring division. Here is a man who will guide you over there.”