ERICH MARIA REMARQUE ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT _Translated from the German by A. W. WHEEN_ LONDON G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES _first published_ _in Germany January_ 1929 _First published in England March_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted April_ 1929 _Reprinted May_ 1929 _Reprinted May_ 1929 _Reprinted May_ 1929 _Reprinted June_ 1929 _Reprinted June_ 1929 _Completing_ 90,000 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. CHISWICK PRESS; CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS), LTD. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT CHAPTER I We are at rest five miles behind the front. Yesterday we were relieved, and now our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans. We are satisfied and at peace. Each man has another mess-tin full for the evening; and, what is more, there is a double ration of sausage and bread. That puts a man in fine trim. We have not had such luck as this for a long time. The cook with his carroty head is begging us to eat; he beckons with his ladle to every one that passes, and spoons him out a great dollop. He does not see how he can empty his stew-pot in time for coffee. Tjaden and Müller have produced two wash-basins and had them filled up to the brim as a reserve. In Tjaden this is voracity, in Müller it is foresight. Where Tjaden puts it all is a mystery, for he is and always will be as thin as a rake. What's more important still is the issue of a double ration of smokes. Ten cigars, twenty cigarettes, and two quids of chew per man; now that is decent. I have exchanged my chewing tobacco with Katczinsky for his cigarettes, which means I have forty altogether. That's enough for a day. It is true we have no right to this windfall. The Prussian is not so generous. We have only a miscalculation to thank for it. Fourteen days ago we had to go up and relieve the front line. It was fairly quiet on our sector, so the quartermaster who remained in the rear had requisitioned the usual quantity of rations and provided for the full company of one hundred and fifty men. But on the last day an astonishing number of English field-guns opened up on us with high-explosive, drumming ceaselessly on our position, so that we suffered heavily and came back only eighty strong.