All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Read Free Book Online Page A

the silhouette of Katczinsky. The old veteran, he sits quietly and smokes his pipe-a covered pipe of course. When he sees I am awake, he says: "That gave you a fright. It was only a nose-cap, it landed in the bushes over there."
    I sit up, I feel myself strangely alone. It's good Kat is there. He gazes thoughtfully at the front and says:
    "Mighty fine fire-works if they weren't so dangerous."
    One lands behind us. Some recruits jump up terrified. A couple of minutes later another comes over, nearer this time. Kat knocks out his pipe. "We're in for it."
    Then it begins in earnest. We crawl away as well as we can in our haste. The next lands fair amongst us. Two fellows cry out. Green rockets shoot up on the sky-line. Barrage. The mud flies high, fragments whizz past. The crack of the guns is heard long after the roar of the explosions.
    Beside us lies a fair-headed recruit in utter terror. He has buried his face in his hands, his helmet has fallen off I fish hold of it and try to put it back on his head. He looks up, pushes the helmet off and like a child creeps under my arm, his head close to my breast. The little shoulders heave. Shoulders just like Kemmerich's. I let him be. So that the helmet should be of some use I stick it on his behind;- not for a jest, but out of consideration, since that is his highest part. And though there is plenty of meat there, a shot in it can be damned painful. Besides, a man has to lie for months on his belly in the hospital, and afterwards he would be almost sure to have a limp.
    It's got someone pretty badly. Cries are heard between the explosions.
    At last it grows quiet. The fire has lifted over us and is now dropping on the reserves. We risk a look. Red rockets shoot up to the sky. Apparently there's an attack coming.
    Where we are it is still quiet. I sit up and shake the recruit by the shoulder. "All over, kid! It's all right this time."
    He looks round him dazedly. "You'll get used to it soon," I tell him.
    He sees his helmet and puts it on. Gradually he comes to. Then suddenly he turns fiery red and looks confused. Cautiously he reaches his hand to his behind and looks at me dismally.
    I understand at once: Gun-shy. That wasn't the reason I had stuck his helmet over it. "That's no disgrace," I reassure him: "Many's the man before you has had his pants full after the first bombardment. Go behind that bush there and throw your underpants away. Get along -- "

    ■■

    He goes off. Things become quieter, but the cries do not cease. "What's up, Albert?" I ask.
    "A couple of columns over there got it in the neck."
    The cries continued. It is not men, they could not cry so terribly.
    "Wounded horses," says Kat.
    It's unendurable. It is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning.
    We are pale. Detering stands up. "God! For God's sake! Shoot them."
    He is a farmer and very fond of horses. It gets under his skin. Then as if deliberately the fire dies down again. The screaming of the beasts becomes louder. One can no longer distinguish whence in this now quiet silvery landscape it comes; ghostly, invisible, it is everywhere, between heaven and earth it rolls on immeasurably. Detering raves and yells out: "Shoot them! Shoot them, can't you? damn you again!"
    "They must look after the men first," says Kat quietly.
    We stand up and try to see where it is. If we could only see the animals we should be able to endure it better. Müller has a pair of glasses. We see a dark group, bearers with stretchers, and larger black clumps moving about. Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run on farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again.
    Detering raises up his gun and aims. Kat hits it in the air. "Are you mad---?"
    Detering trembles and throws his rifle on the ground.
    We sit down and hold our ears.