In a large salon there were the recruits changing clothes, while changing clothers Henrik was singing a common german song of the time.
-Girl, I love you; wedding but no, that is not yet possible.
-just wait a year, then it will come true;
-just wait a year, then it will come true;
-That we a..... just coming to a stop because the guy in the side started chatting to him.
"She won't wait, Kamarad. She won't do it." the young man laughed a little while saying that.
"Haha, yes comrade she won't do it, but look I am handsome in this uniform to get other easily." Henrik laughed loud at the end, even tough he still dont know how he looks now.
"Oh, I am not sure about that, Ludwig, will you be snatching away all the ladies from us now?" The lad addressed other man at his side changing.
"Yeah." the lad said while putting his glasses
"My concern is that you don't shoot us." he laughed while his other 3 fellow friends too at the same time.
"Greetings friends, name is Henrik" Henrik streches his hand saluting the four guys
"Hello Henrik, Paul Bäumer" Henrik salutes Paul looking at him, a tall young man who looks eager going to the front to die.
"Hello, Albert Kropp" Albert a guy who looks the mischevious of the group looking for adventures.
"Hey, Franz Müller" Franz who follows the others.
"Hello, Ludwig Behm" Ludwing who dont looks too much eager to be here yet still brave enough for going to the front.
How do you see guys, maybe we dont need our beloved to wait us for a year before we can have some fun, we can have it in the front, dont know you but i for sure will try my luck with some french lovely girls once we penetrate the front line.
Yeah!!
Yeah !! , for some beauty from Paris!! - the guys around cheers loud laughing and striking the floor with their boots. Henrik mingled with his peers for a while because having friends in the front its better than dying alone and being most of the time bored.
Suddenly there is a loud disturb in the entrance when we are all ready and docked on the uniform and weapons on shoulders.
-Attention soldiers, we will start marching to the front, start forming the column. NOW NOW NOW. suddenly all the people evacuate the place fast.
After a while a large column of marching troops could be seen on a dirt road moving forwards to their destiny, uniform cleans with not a speck of dust, joyfull faces and on high morale singing songs like they were going for a camping instead of war.
If you can't sleep,
Take a sleeping draft,
drink a cup of tea, sugar and coffee
drink a cup of tea, sugar and coffee
And a little glass of wine!
And a little glass of wine!
Girl, I love you;
Nice song and a beautifull landscape all around, I love these road with trees on both sides clean terrain after them with the countryside look. A beautifull march to dead.
-----------------
LA MALMAISON, NORTHERN FRANCE
25 KM TO THE WESTERN FRONT
On the way to the front line aboard trucks.
"Your name?" our officer aboard ask one of us while inspecting each rifle on hand, a beautiful iconic bolt-action rifle Mauser 98.
-Kropp. Albert Kropp, sir.
"Do you like dirty girls, Kropp?." then says again "Do you like dirty girls?"
"Uh, no. I don't, sir." A little nerveous and bothered about how to respond.
"So why do you sleep with one then? report for guard duty at three o'clock."
"Gentlemen, you'll be fighting in a godforsaken shithole, and you'll kindly do so with a clean G98. You will pamper it, you will love it, and damn it, you will keep it as immaculate as the thighs of the Holy Virgin. Do we understand each other?"
-Jawohl, sir!
-Jawohl, sir!
The officer was being just a jerk to Kropp but he is right a clean weapon is better than getting a jammed gun when the shooting starts all around, practically a dead sentence.
"Sir how do we address you?" Henrik
"Leutnant, Leutnant Andreas Hoppe"
"Jawohl, Lieutenant"
"Welcome to the 78th Reserve Infantry Regiment, we are now on the Western Front." Lieutenant Hoppe
-Welcome to Paris! - Lieutenant Hoppe
-Yeah! Welcome to Paris! - all the guys in the truck cheers striking the floor with the butt of the rifle
After passing the border of a little ruined city, all over the place mud and dirt because of the continuous rain for day that dont seems to stop anytime soon. A guy on doctor clothes painted in blood all over starts making signals to the truck convoy.
"Down there! Down there!"
"Down there! This way!"
"This way! Go on! Over there on the right!"
A few lucky guys before us dont gived a shit about the doctor, but we are the unlucky ones that will need to move on foot for sure, everytime this happens in a movie is to requisition the vehicles.
"Damn it, what happened? I have orders to hand over the company to the front by 6:00 p.m." Lieutenant Hoppe
"That you may, but on foot. You must give us the trucks, lieutenant." the medic guy
"With all due respect, I have orders-- " Lieutenant Hoppe
"Take the orders and stick them up your arse. I have 40 men here who are dying in the mud. Get out right now, will you?" medic
"Everyone, get up. Come on, get on with it. You heard the staff surgeon. Faster, soldiers. Don't fall asleep here. Keep moving." Lieutenant Hoppe
And so... we walked for hours, now the landscape its not all happy and shiny as the day we parted, now all over its desolation and despair in sight, mud, dirt, rain, destruction in every building on sight, but the worst the damn rain, a pain in the ass.
"Franz Müller, correct?" Lieutenant Hoppe
"Yes."
"The supreme army command expects you to survive at least six weeks of being here. Would you like that, in six weeks, to still be alive?" Lieutenant Hoppe
"Jawohl, sir." Franz
"Then walk quicker and stop dragging your feet like you would do at home. Do you understand?" Lieutenant Hoppe
"Yes." Franz
"All of you hurry up. We're not at a tea party here" Lieutenant Hoppe
All the way on the marching road there are injured and death soldiers, dead horses at the sides of the road, discarded transport, cannons and materials, all over the place uncountables to no end on sight.
Looking a dead body at the side while marching Henrik fastly takes a few ammo clips from the ammo pouch into his pockets picking while at the same time 2 stiel granades from his belt and his canteen, if he could have more time he would love to check for rations in the knapsack but knowing that he dont, fastly gets up and keeps marching on the line with a little smile, we werent comissioned granades so picking them from the corpses isnt a bad option after all they will not need them anymore. Lieutenant Hoppe saw Henrik actions but dont said anything.
Suddenly there is a strong whistle on the sky and his head just clicks thinking about a enemy attack. A moment later the shells impact near the column of troops.
'Fuck!! we are under artillery attack' the explosions keep goin all over the place. Instantly Henrik gets body to the ground, all the people doing the same actions, but suddenly starts the cry of alert in the back.
Gas!
Gas!
Gas!
Gas masks on!
After hearing all the cry about possible gas Henrik instantly opens his can mask and put it on his face with a steady pace nor too fast nor too slow keeping calm all the time because anxiety would only make it slower. Once the gas mask was put he looks around the place but there is no fog of gas knowing that it was just high-explosive or shrapnell shells in anycase i dont want to be in the end impact of one of those.
"That, gentlemen, was a fat pig, if the French could aim better you could scrape us all off the road with a spoon and bury us in a saucepan. But one thing that's as certain as amen in church, Fat pigs don't carry gas, eyes straight ahead." Lieutenant Hoppe then advances to Paul in the line who is still trying to put his mask after having helped Ludwig but with not enough time for him and was looking in the wrong direction ordered "Are you deaf?."
"No, sir. I was just trying to put my mask on." Paul says a little nerveous to the Lieutenant
"Paul Bäumer, you will almost certainly be dead by dawn. You should eat something, man." Hoppe looks to Paul and then to the rest of the people in the column "Attention! Gas masks off! Gas masks off!"
"Not you. You keep yours on until guard duty tonight, both you and that useless pig." Hoppe seeing Pual trying to remove his gas mask. "Fall in line. March. Fall in line!."
"Paul, try to relax and breath evenly you will get tired faster marching with the mask all the time, its harder to breath, dont get bothered by the things the liutenant said, here only survives the lucky ones more times than the fasters in doing things, sometime being faster is only to die faster" Henrik says to Paul who looks to him for a moment before responding and marching with him "Ja".
"Stay together and keep moving! Come on, hurry up! Go!"
After marching for a long time on the road it started raining and by the time the regiment arrived into the trenches in the front line was a torrential rain nonstop flooding the trenches.
We can hear constant field artillery attack on the trenches and machine guns firing all the time, we got to the front line where the action is being played.
"Come on. Paul, come on. Give me your knapsack, next time, you carry mine." says Franz to Paul once in the trenches, Paul just shrugges him off to keep moving, they were already on the trenches.
"Congratulations, soldiers. This is your home now, helmets off." Hoppe
"I see the men have been enjoying themselves in my absence, Steinberger."
"We were under barrage all night. The men are a mess." Steinberger
"I think dry boots would be a good place to begin. Oh, you'd rather we all drown then?" Hoppe
"Everyone pitch in! Come on, bail out the trench, get in line to bail the water!"
"What are you waiting for, Bäumer?, why are you still loitering here?, go and help bail out the trenches. Come on, all of you!"
"Throw a dog a piece of meat It will always snap it up. Give a man power… Man is a beast. Here take this, drink." A man sitting around in a little space on one side of the trench wall says.
"Katczinsky, come over here give us a hand."
"Tonight, it'll be even worse." Katczinsky
"Come on Paul, lets go help the rest" Henrik
All the damn trenches were flooded, a good nice place for rats to stay humid and putrid. The guys were using their stahlhelm as cubets for picking the water and throwing it outside the trenches, but the thing is that its raining like crazy it piles up faster again, a shitty trench desing was done here.
With a little sigh Henrik removes his helmet and starts helping the rest trying to not think too much that will suck getting fucking wet on a trench, disease and disconfort...
"Sorry." Ludwig says to Paul about all the troubles he caused to him with Hoppe.
"Forget it." Paul
"Somehow, this isn't how I imagined it." Ludwig starts seeing the reality of the situation and not the beautiful fantasy that was given on the speeches and how nice the politicians put them, war is a cruel place to any human where all kinds of inhuman things are done and lived no matter how nice and good the cause to fight for is. In this place the mental fortitude and will of anyone is tested at all times.
"Just shut up, Ludwig." Albert trying to avoid thinking about the situation.
"My hands. I can't feel my hands any more." Ludwig
"Stick them down your underwear. It always works for me." Katczinsky
The guys looks at each other for a moment before dropping their helmet and doing it so.
"Now my balls are freezing, hahaha" Henrik
"Ja, haha" all the guys laugh a little
"Ja" Ludwig repeats again smiling a little more relaxed
"Try not to think too much Ludwig, it will not help you in anyway, now your only thought and of anybody should be survival, try to do your job and while doing so, think about how to keep being alive, not unnecesary tought that this isnt a nice place or anything like that, we will not get confort in this place, only a rough time if we can live through it, we need to accept our new reality, but dont despair this will not last forever, no war last forever" Henrik
"Yeah, Paris we will soon brech the enemy trenches and get a pretty french girl Ludwig" Albert
"Yeah" cheering a little.
Paris is a illusion but maybe a girl could be possible.
----------
Later in the night, finally the rain stopped, there was Paul, Henrik and Albert on watch for the night and Paul was cleaning his rifle. In the sky we can see how the flares illuminate all this quiet place.
"I have never seen a sight like this before, how the flares illuminates all over in the darkness, its beautiful, a nice show if werent that its for looking enemies to shoot" Henrik
Both guys look to Henrik for a moment before sigh not saying anything.
Henrik then picks the second canteen stolen from the dead body, but changed the contents inside after they removed the water from the trenches with wine picked from somewhere when wasnt seen. Taking a deep drink to get warm and relax he passes it to Paul "drink, it will get you warm" who drinks from it a few sips and then passes it to Albert.
"That will make it shoot better, will it?" Albert says looking how Paul keeps cleaning the weapon non stop with a piece of cloth while drinking from the canteen.
"Did you hear that?" Paul
"Hear what?" Albert
"That sound. Listen." Paul
"There's nothing there." Albert
"Our first French to shoot." Paul says smiling
"More likely our first rat to shoot than a french, there is nothing out there Paul, fucking rats they are everywhere" Henrik looking to into the vast no man's land between the trenches and seeing nothing in the darkness.
"Calm down, Paulchen." Albert says dismissively
"There's someone out there." Paul
"Try to dont shoot unless u have a clear objetive is dark and they will see gun flash when you shoot attracting attention, dont want to get down by enemy howitzers" says Henrik trying to calm down Paul excited state.
"Who's there?" "Hey." "Show yourself!" Paul dont taking note of both of them still persist in the sound he heard.
Henrik seeing him like that position himself with his rifle looking to the front for possible enemy night raid, its not impossible but tactics like that were used in the late trench warfare of the war the famous stormtroopers more effective than just blowing up with artillery.
He dont see shit in this night but hears something like moving in the dirt just like Paul said. Suddenly Paul shoots to the front and knows they are fucked so quickly gets down. "Fast get down, get down"
Albert dont think twice and gets down fast but Paul keeps looking like dumb into the front and a bullet hit right into his helmet.
"Oh, no, no, no! I'm hit! I'm hit! I've been hit!" Pauls starts screaming.
"No, Paul. No." Albert says while checking the head of Paul
"You're fine Paul. Calm down, dont scream it will attract more attention, u got lucky it dont penetrate the helmet and bounced off, you have won another life, smile" Henrik
"What's going on?" "What is it?" Hoppe
"The others, over there. They shot at me." Paul says still freaking out about being shot
"They saw the flash of your muzzle." Hoppe
"Huh?" Not assimilating that Henrik already warned him about it and not ducked when said.
"From now on, keep your heads down." Hoppe
"If you don't want to catch the next bullet with your teeth, move ten meters to the left."
"Shoot, change cover. Shoot, change cover. Understand?" says the liutenant to all three
"Yeah." Albert
Mmhm Hoppe and walks away.
"Come on. Paul." says Albert to Paul while we walk to another lookout in the trenches. Suddenly another flare iluminates the night giving a beautiful landscape but when it goes off starts again the sounds of the french artillery roaring into their positions.
Take cover!
Take cover!
Alarm!
Here!
"Bäumer,Schanaider,Kropp come here. Quickly, come on." A soldier screams to them
"Into the bunker!"
"Inside! Inside! Inside!"
once inside we sit around the suspended benches attached in the wall while shells impacts above our head all around, the bunker trembles spreading dust and dirt all over, making it difficult to breath and the screams getting on the nerves of all the soldiers, worried and exhausted.
Henrik sighs a little on his spot and rest a moment his head into the walls when suddenly Ludwig starts mumbling something, like going fucking crazy, a damn histerical break on action.
"Be careful what you eat, that's what my mother said. We'll always be together, won't we Paul?" Ludwig
"Yeah." Paul shitting himself and with a fear stricken face tries to respond mumbling a answer
"We'll stick together. We'll always be." Ludwig
"I can't do this, Paul. I can't do this." "I need to go home." Paul just look to him not knowing what to answer him.
"I need to go home." like hipnotising keeps repeating Ludwig
"Creeping barrage." Steinberger
"What?" Paul looks to him uncertain
"Every couple of minutes, the artillery barrage makes an advance forward, and directly after that, the infantry moves forward." Steinberger
"What are you saying, exactly?" Albert looks to him in terror and not understending shit about what he is talking about
"It means that prepare yourself the French are about to do a charge into our side to try to take the trenches, it would be a carnage, dont think, act on it, aim the enemy, pull the trigger , reload and pull the trigger again" Henrik says to them
Hoppe looked approvingly to Henrik answer. Suddenly one guy gets up and tries to exit the bunk but Hoppe intercepts him.
"Where are you going?"
"I'll come back."
"It's nearly over." Hoppe tries to calm the soldier into going to die for nothing.
"No! Let me go."
"Stay where you are." Hoppe
"Let me out of here. I want to get out."
"Calm down." "Calm yourself." Hoppe
The boy calms down por a moment and when Hoppe distracts himself for a second he runs into the exit
"No!" screams Hoppe but the boy blows up into mince meat by a shell exploding near the entrace starting to bring down the bown.
"Get out! Out! Out! Out!" Hope screams to all to exit the bunk that its about to crumble.
"Out!"
Henrik instantly gets up and pulls Paul and Ludwig forcefully who is having a break down hittings his head into the wall to the exit even if he is screaming.
While running into the exit he looks for a second to the ceiling trying to use his magic that works stopping the collapse for a few seconds winning just enough time for exiting the bunker with the walls collapsing behind.