Wooden Crosses

Demachy joins the 5th Squad of the 3rd Company and is introduced to the rest of the unit by Caporal Breval. Sulphart, described as the 'company loudmouth', helps settle him in as the squad relaxes. Demachy shares memories from life before enlistment while the men pass the time with drinks and dancing.

A solemn procession passes by the camp: two soldiers carry a body on a stretcher, another bears a large wooden cross, and four more follow. The squad falls silent and salutes as they pass, the moment underscoring the war's toll.

The squad is sent to a front-line trench and spends the night in a large dugout, with Sulphart and Lemoine on the first watch while the rest settle in. An announcement for a patrol is made, and Demachy and Vairon volunteer to join the mission along with three others. They crawl over no man's land toward a German position, but are forced to retreat when artillery and gunfire erupt.

During the patrol, Demachy and Vairon join three others to crawl toward a German position. They witness Germans around a fire and a song, then are forced to retreat as artillery bursts overhead. Returning to the dugout, they discover Vairon has been shot in the chest and killed.

Demachy awakens to the sound of mining beneath the dugout and alerts Sergent Berthier and Lieutenant Morache, who come with an engineering officer to confirm the threat. The engineers declare the mine real and advise staying put, a decision that weighs on the men as the danger grows.

Three days pass while the Germans continue mining beneath the trench. The squad is told relief is coming, but it is delayed. When the relief finally occurs, it is after 9:07 PM and the explosives detonate as the 5th Squad leaves the trench.

Back in the rear, Bouffioux delivers mail to the squad. Demachy receives a letter addressed to Vairon and, after reading it, places it beside the flowers he finds at Vairon’s cross, tearing the Vairon letter into pieces and leaving them among the flowers.

Equipped with knives, helmets and cigars, the squad returns to the front and joins an assault to retake a French village. German artillery saturates their lines as they go over the top, breaking through the first line and pressing toward the third. Captain Cruchet is killed early; Hamel and Fouillard die later in the ten-day battle.

The squad takes shelter in a cemetery when Breval volunteers to fetch water and is spotted by two Germans who shoot him in the chest. Demachy, despite Sulphart’s pleas, leaves the hole to rescue Breval and brings him to a ruined mausoleum. The men gather around Breval as the German attack continues and he dies beside them.

The squad returns to the rear as reinforcements arrive and ambulances pass by. They are told that leave is canceled and ordered to assemble with their equipment to return to the front.

At night they reach a dugout and hear an injured French soldier nearby. Bouffioux declines the first watch, and Lemoine volunteers to take his place. Artillery roars; when a search for Lemoine is conducted, he is found dead.

In the next-day offensive, artillery pummels the line. Sulphart loses part of a hand and hopes Demachy will return safely, while Bouffioux is shot in the chest and Demachy is wounded by artillery. A stretcher-bearer attempting to reach him is killed, and that night Demachy dies after failing to crawl back to the trench.