Best, Nicholas

In this valuable work of history, the author?s special achievement is weaving together the reports of famous and soon-to-be-famous individuals who experienced the war up close. We follow a young Walter Cronkite as he parachutes into Holland with a Canadian troop; photographer Lee Miller capturing the evidence of Nazi atrocities; the future Pope Benedict returning home and hoping not to get caught and shot after deserting his infantry unit; Audrey Hepburn no longer having to fear conscription into a Wehrmacht brothel; and even an SS doctor?s descriptions of a decadent sex orgy in Hitler?s bunker.

Discusses the final days of WWI and the armistice that was called the very day that over 11,000 casualties had been sustained, and provides testimony from figures such as Harry S. Truman, Ernest Hemingway, and Marie Curie, and future generals MacArthur, Patton, and Montgomery.