This collection of reminiscences and poems of American veterans residing in France brings alive the realities of World War II, particularly in France but also in North Africa, the South Pacific, England, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Germany.

Many compelling images emerge from these seventeen stories: a secret agent launching kayaks in cold Algerian waters, a six-foot-two sergeant wading ashore at Utah Beach, an American medic treating a German soldier in a Norman church, a young Frenchman hiding an American airman in a shepherd's hut, a commander crawling over to a burning tank to save on of his "boys", a WAC dancing in the streets of Paris on V-E Day.