Chapter 4: Summary

The men are sent on a mission to lay barbed wire at the front before they approach the enemies. They are embraced by the front and fear is no longer a feeling; only to rookies.  Three shells land near them and the earth feels like its quaking. On there way to the front, they pass shell holes on their walk, and shortly have to put cigarettes and pipes out because they were close to the enemies. Out of nowhere, the sky lights up with bombs and fire and the bombardment begins.  While the soldiers are crawling under heavy fire, they pass bodies; some dead, some terrified and alive. Paul discovers that one of the rookies had went to the bathroom in their pants and kindly tells him to throw them out and not to worry. Paul was not going to be uptight and obnoxious like the other soldiers such as Himmelstoss. The men come across a loose coffin lid and throw out the body and hide in the coffin for protection. The shelling had stopped Later on, Paul sees a rookie walking around without a mask and tears his off too. The men find a wounded soldier who was the rookie that had went to the bathroom in his pants earlier.  They come to realize that this soldier will more than likely not make it through the night, so they decided together to take him out of his misery. They were just about to shoot and then other soldiers arrived on the scene. They know he will now die a long and painful death. They think about those who have fallen before them as they carefully drive home through the wired areas for defense.