Fleeing over a hedge into a mucky ditch, the men — Paul in the lead — head cross-country toward a dugout where they bind their wounds and size up their chances of recovery. A field ambulance evacuates them to a dressing station, and there they are vaccinated against tetanus. Albert worries about a leg amputation and Paul fights to keep his senses and not be chloroformed as the doctor examines him. The doctor removes shrapnel and appears to enjoy Paul's discomfort; he sets Paul's leg and informs him he will be going home. Afterward, Paul bribes the sergeant-major with cigars to keep him and Albert together.
Transferred to an eight-man ward in a Catholic hospital, Paul awakens at seven o'clock the next morning to the sound of Morning Devotion. Albert shouts an order for quiet and the men hurl objects at the door so that the sisters will close the door and leave them in peace. To the hospital inspector's questioning, Josef Hamacher, who receives special privileges because of a head injury, claims to have made the ruckus. During the night, while there is only one night sister on duty, the men ring repeatedly to report that Albert's wound is hemorrhaging.
The next morning, Albert's face has yellowed from loss of blood. After Franz Wächter, the victim of a gunshot wound in the arm, is wheeled away on a gurney, Josef informs the others about the Dying Room, a separate space adjacent to the mortuary where seriously ill patients are taken to die. By afternoon, a new patient occupies Franz's bed. Little Peter, who suffers a lung injury, cries out belligerently that he will not be dumped in the Dying Room. Solemnly, Josef predicts that they will not see Peter again.
