All Quiet on the Western Front Post 2

As you come into the novel you meet a young soldier in his early twenties in the German army. The soldier is named Paul Baumer and is stationed in a base on the western front of Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front is told in first person by Paul. The novel starts off by introducing each one of the soldiers in Pauls squad. There are eight men in his squad, but eight were also lost in the previous battle. Paul talks about the hardships they have to deal with and how fortunate they are when his squad recieves double rations of cigars, cigarettes, and chewing tobacco. I really felt like I was a soldier stationed at his location in these first couple of chapters by how Erich Remarque, the author of the novel, goes so far as to describe the language they use and how their "parents and school teachers would have been astounded at the language they used but it was soldier talk and thats how they spoke. The food rations and the way the soldiers eat is also depicted in very vivid detail. When the cook makes an amount of food that is double what is needed the soldiers jump on the idea of getting a double ration, for they are hungry constantly and, as Paul describes, on their shifts they sometimes go two weeks on almost nothing except spoiled meat and moldy bread, which still barely even quenches their hunger. Right now in the book I still have a couple questions. The first being, where exactly are they stationed. Currently in the novel Remarque has made no notion as to where Paul and his fellow soldiers are stationed except that they are stationed somewhere on the western front of Germany. The second being, how far into the war are they? Has it just started or have the Americans already invaded Normandy. I am really excited to keep reading this novel one, because its a war book, and two because it is told from the perspective of a German soldier which could provide some further insight on what the war was like on the German side of things.