“All Quiet on the Western Front”: Analysis of New Technologies Used in World War I

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” by Erich Maria Remarque, written in 1928 is a war novel that has been regarded as one of the best war novels of all time. The novel is about World War I and the large impact that it played in history. The narrator of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is Paul Baumer, a 19 year old, who fights for the German army on the French front. Paul joined up with several of his high school friends and was filled with nationalism, but after being in training and fighting on the front lines they quickly learn that the same nationalism and patriotism that they had meant nothing, in comparison to the constant terror they would endure.  The novel is an account of World War I through the eyes of Paul, and how in such destruction after a mere two weeks, only eight out of his troop of 150 men survived. Paul, like many young men fighting in war, realizes that there is no escape from war and the only true escape is through death. In this novel, Remarque points out the cause of such destruction and how recruits had no idea what they were entering into when they signed up to fight for their nation.

The main concerns of this war, as Remarque points out, are the technologies that people begin to use. The new technologies consist of ones that are more effective and can more easily kill an enemy, but not only were they more effective in killing; they were introduced during war and the soldiers were up against something that they had never encountered before during training practices; therefore, they had not learned a way to really combat it. As well as Remarque pointing out the new technologies in his novel, the themes and motifs of the book leave a haunting impression of reality and war during World War I.  

War always tend to spur the development of new technology, technology that is more accurate, faster, and more destructive, in order to kill enemies on the battle field. Throughout time each war has brought in better equipment and as Remarque points out in his fiction novel, World War I was no exception. World War I saw the first extensive use of trench warfare, machine guns, aircraft, aerial bombs, and heavy artillery. With the new ways to kill and inflict injury on soldiers there also came the need for more and better medical treatment; several surgeries began being performed during World War I that still exist today.

Trench warfare that was used during World War I was a useful tool in protecting the soldiers, when in the trenches the soldiers were able to get low enough to escape the sweeping movements of the machine guns. With the trenches came several advantages and disadvantages though. The soldiers were in the trenches for long periods of time during combat. The rain kept the trenches wet and there was no way that a soldier could get dried off, but not only was the wet, cold, modern Europe weather a factor in the trenches. There was also the constant surge of rats that was after the food that the soldiers had. Remarque’s novel, written from the view point of Paul a German soldier, discusses the difficulties of surviving in the trench and how scarce food was to begin with before the rats found the trenches. Paul states, “We cannot afford to throw the bread away, because then we should have nothing left to eat in the morning, so we carefully cut off the bits of bread that the animals (rats) have gnawed” (102) and later he says that he wished they had eaten it anyway. Not only were the rats a problem in the trenches, but there were so many lines of trenches that often times when recruits or young soldiers got in a hurry they miss calculated when they fired their shells and mortars. Paul recollected that in the front lines it was not uncommon to be hit from their own country, and said that many men were wounded by their own mortars in the front lines. The trenches also made it very difficult for soldiers to advance on either side. The trenches ended up placing the troops in a stalemate because no one could leave and enter dead man’s land without getting shot down; therefore, they just fired upon their enemies from trench lines and did not advance in either direction.  Even though the trenches were not the best method of warfare it still protected the soldiers by getting them below ground level so that they could escape the fire of the machine guns.

Machine guns were first introduced into wars, during World War I. German troops had machine guns but so did the French on the Western Front. Paul describes how they had to constantly duck into the lowest places possible to escape the firing of the guns. At one point he lies flat in a mud hole, while trying to escape the bullets. Machine guns were something that the soldiers had never been up against before. They were used to guns firing but only one round, and then having to manually be reloaded. Now machines guns were being used that could fire multiple rounds, between four and six hundred per minute. They were used in a sweeping motion that could easily hit a soldier across the stomach or below the waist severely wounding and/or killing them. The only downfalls of the machine gun was that it was difficult to move, and would over heat quickly. Remarque’s novel describes, through Paul, how the soldiers did not have enough water the way it was, but the machines guns still had to be cooled. At one point the soldiers passed around a cup for them to urinate in, so they could use urine, in order to keep the machine gun cooled down enough to be able to fire upon the French soldiers that were advancing.  

Aircraft was also a new technology used during the war. There were two kinds that are mentioned in Remarque’s novel, but only one that they really feared. The bomber plane was the least of their worries according to Paul. The bomber plane dropped bombs that the soldiers could hear and often see falling; therefore, the soldiers had time to lie low and escape the destruction of the bombs. The most feared aircraft, according to Paul, were the observation planes. According to the novel the observation planes were the ones that the soldiers really feared even though they themselves did not drop bombs. The observation planes instead spied upon the Germans and then gave away the position of the soldiers, so that the French troops, or the other enemies, could send out mortars to that particular location, or know where all the soldiers may be huddled together in one spot before they attacked. Paul realized quickly that every time an observation plane was seen they would soon be under either an attack or a counter attack because the French on the Western Front would send out a plane to find out the location and then quickly go in and try to kill them off while they are all in one spot. At one point in the novel they found a village that had been abandoned and used one location to cook food that they had found, they built a fire and were roasting a pig. An observation plane circled the village, and located the smoke from the fire. Then there were trench mortars and a bombardment upon the troops as they were trying to finish their meal to have something good to eat that evening.  

Another technology that was used to the demise of enemy troops was that of shells and mortars which were nothing but a bomb placed inside metal casings. When mortars and shells were fired into trenches they would explode sending the outside metal casing splintering toward the enemies. The splinters were sharp shards of metal that could easily rip through soldiers gear and flesh. The wound that these mortars could cause was anything from a grazing of the skin to the removing of body parts. Along with the mortars came not only metal shards from the bomb itself and the casings, but also whatever the mortar hit. In “All Quiet on the Western Front” the major splintering was that of wood. Trees and buildings that were hit by the mortars would splinter, and the force behind the bomb sent the wooden splinters flying at remarkable speeds. The wood flying from the mortars impact seemed to be as dangerous in the novel as the actual mortars themselves.

Other technologies that were present during World War I, that are mentioned by Remarque, were those of electric wires that would trip, shock, and kill enemies walking close to the German trenches. At one point, Paul even mentioned seeing a flame thrower used by a French soldier, although the Germans were the first to use the flamethrower in World War I. The flame throwers could reach out around 60 feet from the trench and if an enemy was approaching it was caught up in a fiery blast of flames. However, the soldiers operating the flame throwers were usually quick targets and could easily be either killed or taken captive. Grenades and gas was also used during World War I that was effective in killing the enemies. Remarque mention’s, at several different locations, that his character Paul found trenches lined with recruits that did not get their masks on quick enough and were killed by the gas. Paul was also in a trench when gas was being used, however, he was able to get his mask on quick enough to escape death, and refused to take his mask off until he seen people above him out of the trench with their masks off, so he knew at that point that it was safe for him to remove his mask. These technologies are described as mere words because that is what Paul was accustomed to and this became his everyday life. “Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades—words, words, but they hold the horror of the world” (132).

Due to the extreme destruction and killing that was encountered during World War I the surgeons and those in the medical field were always kept busy. Medications were a commodity, since there was a shortage of supplies during the war. However Paul describes several of the hospitals that he went into with his friends and how even though people were in great pain, there was just not enough medicine for everyone. Paul recalled people with wounds that surgeons would operate on and experiment with, and then if that did not work they would simply amputate the arms or legs. In one case Paul was in a Catholic Hospital with Albert, one of his friends that had gotten wounded. The Catholic Hospital had seen so many wounded men that they could not compete with the large numbers, especially in different locations around the hospital. Therefore the Catholic Hospital made one room a dying room where they would take soldiers that they did not expect to live long. When the soldiers died they would be closer to the morgue and the staff would not have as far to move them. Also by doing this they were able to keep the other soldiers from getting as out of heart.

Remarque’s novel and account of World War I, since he himself fought in World War I, reflects several themes that can be related not just to World War I, but to any major war that has occurred throughout history. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” captivates the readers and touches the hearts of the readers as they become awakened to the reality of war. Some of the themes that awaken this reality are that of the effects it has on the soldiers that are in the trenches, and witnessing the destruction first hand. The reality that no one escapes the effects of war; people at home are affected by rations, soldiers are affected by death and shell shock after the war; and the reality that no one can escape war; teachers, students and civilians are all asked to fight and become inhumane fighting machines, no matter how sophisticated they are in their home town.

World War I, as well as other wars, affects the soldiers in many ways. They suffer from mentality issues from trying to cope with the constant death that is surrounding them amongst the destruction. The novel speaks of the soldiers, both recruits and officials, that when they are placed in the trenches and the front lines they cannot maintain their composure. Paul on at least two accounts talks of having to hold the grown men down and force them to pull themselves together. The two men that they hold down, one was a recruit that was attempting to run out into the open so that he would be shot and could escape the destruction. The other was a soldier and leader who had fought in the war for a while, but had finally had enough and completely froze. Even Corporal Himmelstoss, that was one of Paul’s training officers, froze at the complete destruction on the front lines after he was ordered to fight along with Paul. No one was above the effects, and all the lies that the training officer and older generation had been telling the younger generations were obvious when Himmelstoss could not withstand the fighting he encountered at the front lines.  Paul had to get him to pull himself together and move with the rest of the soldiers to prevent them from being hit by a mortar.  

The immediate effect of the war on the soldiers was evident in the Remarque’s novel, but also there was the lasting effect of the war that a soldier would never become rid of. No matter the rank or composure of a soldier, surrounded by constant death and destruction, the war eventually took its toll on the men. As people were laying dead all over the ground and even blown into trees by the mortars, the images of the war was engraved into the soldier’s minds. While not distinctly mentioned in Remarque’s novel, it can be derived that the soldiers who fought in World War I would constantly be in mental combat for the rest of their lives. The soldiers who were young men from ages 18 up would have nightmares, be shell shocked, and remember the death until they eventually died themselves at whatever age.

Also, when a young soldier becomes so accustomed to the death and destruction that is everywhere they look going home makes them seem out of place. Remarque, indirectly tells the readers, through Paul during his leave, that what was once home, where everything was peaceful and he could sit look out his window, read, and play games, now everything seemed to be strange and out of place. Paul, after coming home from the war, could no longer enjoy anything that he once did because he had matured, aged, and grown accustomed to the devastation of war. While he was home he talked to one of his friend’s parents who were killed while beside Paul. He knew that they could not face the reality of their son’s long and painful death so he ‘sugar coated it’ by telling them that he had been killed instantly, but in reality it was all Paul could do to face the parents who were so naïve to the war.

The horrors of World War I, was another theme in Remarque’s novel. Through the turning of each page readers could see that war showed no mercy and that no one was above the devastating effects. Paul recollected his school master teaching his German class French and how to properly speak it. Now that school master is training in his home town to go to war. This school master being the once proper individual now has to face the reality that awaits him during the war. Remarque illustrates that the education and the proper actions did not place him any better off than all the other recruits that were also training with him, and many of them were ones that he once taught. The horror that the character goes through with modern warfare and splinters shattering leaves a lasting impression on Paul. However, the impact of one of his best friends who is shot in the leg Paul carries and attempts to rescue. Reality hits once he gets him to the station, his friend had been shot in the head while Paul carried him and died in his arms, without him knowing it.

The death of his friend, one that he had graduated high school with and went to training with, had a lasting impression on him. However, the dying room and a patient with a bad lung removed from the holding room screaming that he did not want to go to the dying room also impacted Paul’s mentality. He realized that each person that went through the hospital was a mere number and that their life became nothing to a doctor seeing thousands of patients. Peter, after being taken to the dying room screaming that he did not want to go, was not intended to return to the room with Paul, however, much to the surprise of Paul he returned after a few weeks because his condition was not as bad as the doctors once thought. All the horror and fear of dying and the constant stench of death that was constantly consuming Paul was not one that he could forget after the war but one that would remain with him a lifetime. 

It appeared that everywhere Paul went death was encompassing his life. In the war he dealt with the loss of friends, who had become closer than his immediate family had, but even on his leave he could not get away from death. On his leave Paul learned that his mother was ill and that his father believed it was cancer. The illness of his mother was another representation of death and how a soldier can never become removed from death after the war. The destruction of the war had also reached his hometown and news of the horror was not censored.

Many older veterans of war were constantly asking Paul if the war was really as bad as they were hearing and had difficulty believing that hit could be that bad. However, Paul was on leave and desperately trying to escape the war for just a couple short days, he simply answered with no and said that it wasn’t all that bad; when in reality the war was eating at him, mentally. Germany was also under strict food rations. Sometimes Paul wondered if he had more to eat on the front lines than his family did living in Germany. The food was another representation that the destruction of the front lines had impacted Germany as a whole and not just the front lines of the war.

From the cover to cover of Remarque’s novel the destruction and horror of war is illustrated on every page. The novel opens with the death of Kemmerich and how he had been given new boots prior to him being wounded and his death. The boots are taken from him when he dies because he knew that if he did not get them they would just be tossed to the side and someone else would end up with them. At least one of Paul’s friends could use them and needed them. The boots reoccurred throughout and the realization of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes became a reality when the next person with the boots ends up getting killed. The boots become a never ending symbol in the novel and through the progression each person with the boots ended up getting killed. The death of Paul’s class mates went from person to person and along with them the boots, until only Paul was left.

Finally, near the close of the novel, Paul’s mentality is obviously slipping from the constant death and destruction. “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army reported confined itself to the single sentence: All Quiet on the Western Front” (296). It was obvious that near the end Paul realized that he would never be able to escape war, and it did not matter if World War I had ended or not.  The only way for Paul to be able to remotely enjoy peace was through death itself, like all the other soldiers before him had realized. He contemplated on running out and getting shot on purpose like so many of the other people had tried to do but he had prevented them. At last in 1918 with the quietness of the western front Paul was able to obtain the peace when he was killed and “his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come” (296).

Erich Remarque in the novel was able to accurately portray the horror and inhumanity of the war through his fictional novel and the character of Paul. Remarque himself fought during World War I and was wounded five times during his service. The final wound that Remarque received was severe and he was allowed to become a stone cutter for a cemetery rather than going back to the front lines. He lived in Switzerland and knew about the front lines, therefore, the character Paul was a reflection of his endurance through World War I and a representation of his wounds that he received in combat.   

Bibliography

Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front . Translated by A.W. Wheen. New York : Fawcett Books, 1928.

Vehicles those travel through the air are called an air crafts. The ability to sour over obstacles such as oceans and mountains makes aircrafts the fastest form of traveling.

Types of Air crafts

Military

Military uses many air crafts to attack and to transport. Some of the main air crafts that are used by military are.

Fighter/Strike aircraft, MC Donnell Douglas F/A-18E Super Hornet

This plane was an alternative to A-12 avenger and was a cheaper option for stealth attack.

First Flight: 29 November 1995

Service Entry: September 2001

Naval strike aircraft, MC Donnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II

It was an attack fighter plane. This version of harrier was a much improved version of harrier I as the weight was reduced, engine was lift up and wings were enlarged.

First Flight: November 1978

Service Entry: January 12, 1985

Swing-Wing bomber, General Dynamics F-111A Aardvark

It was originally developed as deep-strike fighter bomber for the Air Force and a long-range interceptor for the Navy but later on army used it in a bulk.

First Flight: 21 December 1964

Service Entry: June 1967.

Last modified: 29 November 2005

Ground Attack “Tank Buster”,  Fair-Child A-10 Thunderbolt II

It was designed for survivability. Its role is to fly low and slow over the battlefield. It is mainly used to destroy enemy tanks. It is an extremely rugged aircraft and can fly even in drastic circumstances. It can continue flying even with an engine, a tail fin, or even part of a wing shot off the plane.

First Flight: 10 May 1972

Service Entry: March 1977

Passenger and Cargo Air crafts

Passengers air crafts are those air crafts which are used to take people over large distances in short period of time. Some of the most famous passenger air crafts are:

Wide bodied, long-haul airliner, Boeing 777-200

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Service Entry: 7 June 1995

Medium Range Airliner, Boeing 737-300

It is second generation 737 air craft with a longer fuselage for up to 149 passengers and new engines.

First Flight: 24 February 1984

Service Entry: 7 December 1984

Freight transporter aircraft, Boeing 727

It is a small aircraft used to take less number of passengers and is used for small routes. Although the 727 was even more economical to operate than initially anticipated, sales in the early 1960s were somewhat disappointing.

First Flight: February 1963

Service Entry: 1 February 1964

Commuter Aircraft, Fair-child Metro II

It is a very small and beautiful commuter aircraft with only 19 seats. The metroII aircraft was an improved version of metroI with low noise level and high engine capacities.

First Flight: June 1975

Service Entry: January 1976.

Helicopters

Helicopters serve many functions like attacking, transportation and traveling. The major benefit of helicopters is that they don’t need huge landing paths. Some of the famous helicopters are:

Attack Helicopter, Bell AH-I Cobra

This helicopter was frequently used by army to attack in early 1970s

Passenger Helicopter, Sikorsky S-61

This is a passenger helicopter used to cover smaller routes. Frequently used by United nations.

Transport Helicopter, Boeing CH-47 Chinook

This helicopter is used by army to send large soldier troops from one place to another in a short interval of time. This aircraft can lift heavy weights.

Tilt-rotor aircraft, Boeing V-22 Osprey

This aircraft was designed in 1989 but due tilt rotor concept, it did not become famous. Hence came into service in 2007. Now a day this aircraft is frequently used by military.

Refer following links for deep study.

Pratt and Whitney Aircraft: A History

All About Aircraft Carrier

Aviation in World War II