In the 50 years since the end of the Second World War, much has been written about the men at the top, but little attention has been given to what soldiering was like for the 'dog-face' and 'squaddy', the NCO's and junior officers. Redressing the balance, this original and powerful book explores the conditions in which the soldiers of many different countries lived and died, as well as their hopes and fears, and their experience of battle. John Erickson, John Keegan, Theodore Wilson and Omer Bartov are among the distinguished cast of historians whose subjects range from GIs in Europe to Indian troops in North Africa, and from the comic overtones of Dad's Army in Britain to the grim earnest of the war on the eastern front, where Russian woman fought as full combatants.