When I read All Quiet On the Western Front and later watched its much superior 1930 film adaptation, one of the most thought-provoking scenes was when Paul went to a restaurant during his leave. Because he was a veteran, some German civilians began asking him about the war and one even brought out a map to discuss strategy based on what they know of the war.
One person commented that Germany is winning the war. Paul refuted the claim, stating his units is in terrible condition and several times the French nearly cracked the trench fortification they were defending. Another person than commented that it does not matter if things seem bad in his unit's station because its an insignificant portion of Germany's entrenchments. Everywhere should be fine according to what they were told and even if the section that Paul's platoon is defending gets overrun, it won't be a problem because Germany is winning elsewhere.
This conversation so outraged Paul he left the restaurant as the German civilians than escalated their conversation into an argument, pointing towards the map what ought to be done in where. This scene impacted me so much. Whenever military history is discussed, always is emphasized on what a huge impact major battles did in the war but never are minor incidents and fighting like a bunker being bombed or minor ambushes in one front of the war considered important (at least in general history texts). This scene in All Quiet On the Western Front opened my eyes to just how important an insignificant ambush or the loss of one bunker can play in a war or at least in a major battle.
But I seek your input.