The battles of the World War had their moments of greatness, too. This is known to anyone who saw those masters of the trench—men with stern, resolute faces and reckless courage, moving with agile, springy bounds, their eyes sharp and bloodthirsty—heroes whose names never made the official rolls. Trench warfare was the bloodiest, most savage, and most brutal of all wars, yet it produced men who rose to meet their moment—warriors unknown to history, but brave. Among the war’s stirring moments, none holds such power as the encounter between the commanders of two shock units within the narrow, mud-walled confines of a trench. Here, there could be no retreat and no quarter. Blood makes itself heard in a piercing cry of realization—a nightmare torn from the depths of the chest.

(c) Ernst Jünger "Storm of Steel"