'This anthology is... a distillation of what the fighters put down at the time or in retrospect to tell others (or perhaps convince themselves) what it was all about. Here are the words of the wise, the witty, the nonchalant, the devil-may-care: the poets and the prodigals.' From the Editor's Foreword

On land, the Second World War provided an infinite variety of experience, often under stresses as great as human beings have endured. Reactions are correspondingly various - from the comic to the appalled.

Here are the testimonies of those who fought in all the great campaigns - in Europe, Africa and the Far East. Here too are the words of prisoners, partisans, saboteurs and soldiers in private armies.

This is the third volume in the unique Freedom's Battle trilogy, which provides intensely vivid accounts of war at sea, in the air and on land. Far better than any single narrative, the extracts build up a complete picture of the War as it was experienced by the men and women who actually fought in it.