With unequaled humanity and insight, Pyle tells how people from a cross-section of America—ranches, inner cities, small mountain farms, and college towns—learned to fight a war. The Allied campaign and ultimate victory in North Africa was built on blood, brave deeds, sacrifice and needless loss, exotic vistas, endurance, homesickness, and an unmistakable American sense of humor. It’s all here—the suspenseful landing at Oran; the risks taken daily by fighter and bomber pilots; grim, unrelenting combat in the desert and mountains of Tunisia; a ferocious tank battle that ended in defeat for the inexperienced Americans; and the final victory at Tunis. Pyle’s keen observations relate the full story of ordinary G.I.s caught up in extraordinary times.

    In the course of the book's unfolding, the United States enters the military phase after Pearl Harbor. This comes just as the European powers and China are only just establishing their military infrastructure, through Africa and the Middle East and Russia, and the Far East. German forces are meeting stiff resistance in Russia and North Africa, though the Japanese are pushing through South Asia, threatening India. Through the author's experiences, we read of the patriotism of the Free French, the exiled Poles, the British colonial hierarchy, the Russian Red Army, and the Chinese, both the leadership and the rank and file. We also get a glimpse of the struggles between local concerns and global warfare on all fronts. For example, she expresses the difficulty in understanding the Indian self-absorption in independence and lack of concern in face of the encroaching Japanese-Axis threat. In this unfolding chaos it is little short of amazing that any reporter is capable of traversing the globe and acquiring access to all the leading military and political leaders to learn of their plans and visions for the war itself and its hoped for aftermath and witness their actual efforts and those of their followers.Ms. Curie has presented a whirlwind tour of a world in turmoil. For the year 1942, she gives the reader the sense that the War is at a turning point. Despite the demoralizing retreats in Europe of the previous two years and the surging Japanese in Asia, the author still expresses a note of hope that the Allied cause would yet prevail.