This compelling work is Lloyd M Wells s firsthand account of World War II based on a journal he kept during the war letters he sent home and personal records as well as recollections of people and events In June 1941 the twenty one year old Wells was drafted into the army He was commissioned second lieutenant after he attended O C S and was later promoted to first lieutenant with the First Armored Division He saw action in North Africa Italy and Germany and was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Wells offers the reader information that has never before been provided He tells exactly what happened to 2 7 Queens on the night of February 21 1944 when the troops came up to the caves at Anzio He also depicts what happened during the last offensive in Italy and what armored infantry troops experienced on the perimeter of the attack This book however is not just a story of battle actions It is a personal story about the old Army and how young soldiers were transformed by it during one of the greatest upheavals in world history Wells s goal in writing this book was to leave behind an account of a simpler time and of the funny sad terrorizing and tender moments of a war which with the death of each man or woman who lived through it recedes just a little bit further into the nation s past He accomplished that and so much more