One German, One British

The same trench life, the same trench warfare in the same savage landscape. The same iron messengers with their hissing song. The same injured routine: dressing-stations and military hospitals, then back to the front, returned to their unit, their division, their regiment, their platoon, their troop. The same variety of words with the same meaning used. The same tiny imponderables – a chance meeting, some random thing – determining one's fate, one's position in the same war. Nothing (experience-wise) between them: Jünger and Blunden, one German, one British.

From journal, September 2022. 

See Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger.

Picture credit: Spring in the Trenches, Ridge Woods, 1917, Paul Nash (source: Imperial War Museum, London / WikiArt),