After suffering heavy casualties, Baumer's company is taken farther behind the front lines to gain reinforcements. He relates the emotional state of the troops, how they jest with one another, though just yesterday they were in the midst of a deadly battle. He explains how they put off mourning for the fallen comrades, because to do so would diminish their own abilities to survive. After the war, then they will have time to grieve.
The outside world encroaches upon the soldiers in the form of a theatre poster that was put up before the war. It shows a girl dressed in her summer best. The boys fantasize about the girl, trying to remember what such frivolities were really like.
That evening, they meet some French women as they swim in the river separating their camp.....
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