An unprecedented look at both the ground-level world of the common soldier and a deeply felt rendering of the experience of being a body in war.

"This is an unflinching history of the Western Front in World War II told through the physical misery of the soldiers who fought there. Roberts describes the experiences not only of American and British troops, but of French and German soldiers, too. Though she ranges across the Western Front, her primary cases are the winter campaigns of 43-44 in Italy and 44-45 in Belgium, both crucial to the war's outcome"--