About this Item
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, Erich Maria Remarques, introduction by Harry Hansen, illustrated by John Groth, hardcover in slipcase, special Heritage Press edition, 1969. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block is in fine condition, with no tears, dogears, or marks. No bookplate but the signature of a prior owner is written on the first free endpaper. Not a library book or remainder. The black and green cloth boards are in near fine condition (lightly bumped spine at bottom). The slipcase is in good condition (shelf rubbing top and bottom). Heritage Club pamphlet (4 pages) loosely laid in. 10 ½ x 7 ¾, 221 pages, 41 ounces XX [From the Heritage Press pamphlet] All Quiet . on the Western Front. A mere shrug of words used by headquarters to say that although scores of casualties had been suffered and inflicted, the position of the front lines was unchanged since the night before, and the thousands of shells exploded were no more than normal. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Erich Maria Remarque is a Bildungsroman of the horror of World War I as encountered by a platoon of recruits. Like all the fighting men of the first three years of that war, they were burdened with the shortsighted pigheadedness of their general staff. Of the important military figures at the commencement of the war, only Lord Kitchener foresaw the possibility that the fighting might last three or more years. The general staffs considered it axiomatic that the side with more men and equipment won, and you should grind the enemy away until you had the necessary edge. The first place Remarque's little troop tasted heavy action was at Verdun, in the plan hatched by that master grinder, the German marshal Falkenhayn. He wanted to bleed the French army to death in one prolonged battle, so rather than overrun Verdun quickly, which he could have done, he doled out his forces only in sufficient quantity to keep the struggle raging. In the five months of this one battle, starting in the dead of winter, he ground the French down to the extent of 535,000 casualties, while suffering only 427,000 of his own. The surviving troops had the opportunity to enjoy the French marshal Joffre's repetition of this kind of thinking, at the battle of the Somme. This one opened with an eight-day incessant bombardment of 750,000 shells, approximately one every four seconds. The pre-Kitchener British army made its appearance, every man toting sixty-six pounds of equipment, including sandbags and carrier-pigeons, and suffered forty-percent losses on their first day of fighting. The Somme dragged on from July 1st to September 15th, when something new happened. In Chapter 10 of ALL QUIET Paul Bäumer hears an unexplained clanking, which we know to have been the first appearance of the tank (developed by the British Admiralty, because the Army had scorned the idea). These first fifty prototypes were full of flaws, but they pointed the way to the end of trench warfare. Seller Inventory # 002474
Contact seller
Report this item
