It was only by thinking it out later that I made out our course after this. We had turned without noticing into a third communication trench and by this time were well into the middle of our own barrage, and approaching the fourth line. Here and there we pulled open the boxes of bombs built into the sides of the trench and stuck a bomb in our pockets as a keepsake.
After we had gone to and fro and up and down trenches running parallel and across, no one had any longer the least idea where we were, nor in what direction the German lines lay. By degrees we all got the wind up. The needles of our compasses danced in our hands, and when we looked for the Polestar all we had learned at school evaporated and left us in the lurch. The sound of voices in the next trenches warned us that the enemy had recovered from the shock of surprise. He would be bound soon to realize our position.
After turning about once more I suddenly saw, as I brought up the rear, the muzzle of a machine-gun waving to and fro over a traverse of sandbags. I made a jump at it and came upon Kloppmann and Fähnrich Zglinitzky busy with the gun, while Fusilier Haller was searching a bloodstained body for papers. Without troubling any more about our surroundings we began fiddling with the machine-gun in feverish haste so that we might at least take back something with us. I tried to loosen the retaining screw, another cut off the loading belt with wire-cutters; at last we got hold of the thing, tripod and all, meaning to take it with us without dismounting it. At this moment we heard a voice from a trench running parallel to us. It came from the direction in which we supposed our lines to be. “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?” At the same time a black blob flew over towards us, indistinctly seen against the dim sky. “Look out!” It burst between Mevius and me, and a splinter got Mevius in the hand.
We scattered in all directions, entangling ourselves deeper and deeper in the maze of trenches. With me there were only the pioneer sergeant and Mevius. Our one hope was the Frenchmen’s alarm; for they did not venture yet to come out of their holes. However, it could only be a matter of minutes before we ran into a strong party of them, who would do us in with delight. I debated whether I would not simply whack the first I met on the head with one of the stick bombs that had an instantaneous fuse. There was no thought of hands-up.
When I had given up all hope of getting safely out of the wasps’ nest, a cry of joy escaped me. My eye had fallen on the saucepan with the spoon, and now I knew my direction. As it was now quite light, we had not a moment to lose. We jumped out of the trench and made for our own lines over the top, as the first bullets whistled round us. In the French first line we came on Lieutenant von Kienitz’s party. When the cry of “Luttje Lage!” rang out, we knew we had the worst behind us.
Most unfortunately, in jumping into the trench I came right on a man who was severely wounded and lay in the trench among the others. Kienitz hurriedly told me that he had bombed a French working party in the front line and had driven it back, and that at the very start, when advancing further, he had suffered losses in dead and wounded from the fire of our own artillery.
After waiting a longish while, two more of my party turned up, the N.C.O. Dujesiefken and Fusilier Haller. Haller brought me at least some small consolation. He found himself in his wanderings alone in a little sap, and there he discovered three abandoned machine-guns, one of which he had unscrewed from its stand and brought with him. Now, as it was growing lighter every moment, we hurried over No-man’s-land into our own front line.
Of the fourteen men who had gone out with me only four came back, and Kienitz’s patrol, too, had heavy losses. I was very crestfallen; but some words of the worthy Oldenburger, Dujesiefken, cheered me up a little. He was recounting his experiences to a group of the men in front of the dugout where I was having my hand dressed, and he concluded by saying: “But Lieutenant Jünger has won my respect; lads, lads, you should see him clear the blocks!” Then we got together again and marched through the forest to regimental headquarters. Colonel von Oppen gave us coffee. He was very much disappointed at our lack of success, but he expressed his admiration all the same for what we had done. Then I was put into a car and driven to the division, which required exact information. A few
