Fresh from his memorable days in the field on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal, Tregaskis shares an intimate and rousing diary of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. His experiences take him from bomb-bay doors over Rome to one of the few hotels left standing in devastated Palermo, Sicily, to the chaotic front lines in Italy, where he nearly died from a shrapnel wound. The gleaming ivory grips of Gen. George Patton?s pistol, the terrified face of a soldier engulfed by the hellfire of combat, the extraordinary skill of a military surgeon?the uniquely American features of the Second World War are unforgettably inscribed through the pen of Richard Tregaskis.