All Quiet on the Western Front Post 6

In AQWF, Paul Baumer tells us about his journey through the army from the beginning to the present. He describes how harsh his army career started out at first because of his listing with the most intense and harsh army general, General Himmelstoss. Paul explains to us how Himmelstoss was not a large man, he was, "a small undersized fellow with a foxy, waxed moustache, who had seen twelve years of service and was in civil life a postman." A small fellow but he took no gruff from anyone. He was the strictest general and was proud of it. Paul enlightens us on how Himmelstoss was not only strict towards Paul and his comrades, but also took a special disliking to these young twenty year olds. Many chores were assigned to Paul, the worst of the lot at that, they included; having to remake Himmelstoss' bed fourteen times in one hour, kneading a pair of his iron boots for twenty hours to make them soft as butter, scrubbing the Corporals Mess with a toothbrush, and many more brutal and purposeless chores. The chores were just have the problem, Paul explains, the training only got worse; having to stand out in freshly plowed fields doing "prepare to advance, advance!" until he was a pile of mud. But overall Paul informs us that Himmelstoss, being as brutal and relentless as he was, couldn't have prepared Paul and his comrades more for the front line and the trenches for without his training, Paul says, he would have died within days out on the western front.