I have absolutely loved almost everything I've read by William Wharton, so to discover this posthumous collection of short pieces about his wartime experiences was a real treat. I think it's a book for fans; you wouldn't read this for any great insight into one man's wartime experience, but it does give insight into the background events that has informed some of his fiction. Wharton apparently always told his children stories. This book is the stories he didn't tell them - the absurdity, tragedy and horror of what happened to him during World War 2, and how it changed him as a man and as a writer. A lovely little book, moving at times, but mostly a cheeky, anti-authoritarian look at soldiering.