First published in Great Britain in 2017
by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Published by arrangement with HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, USA
Text copyright © 2017 Michael Grant
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
First e-book edition 2017
ISBN 978 1 4052 8483 7
Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1834 9
www.egmont.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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Cover
Title Page
Copyright
First Edition
EDITOR’S NOTE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Back series promotional page
Ladies of America, by the time you read this exclusive report the fighting in Tunisia will be all over, but the war has just begun for our boys in uniform—boys who have now been joined by girls. I recently had occasion to spend some time with the soldiers of Second Squad, Fifth Platoon, Company A, 119th Division, and I saw firsthand the way some of our soldier girls behave in battlefield conditions.
This is not the story of the battle of Kasserine Pass. It is not the story of any great battle of the sort you read about in history books. This is the story of one of those numberless, small but vicious fights that test a soldier’s courage and determination and all too often end not with the awarding of medals, but with “Taps” being played mournfully over a fresh grave.
I had missed most of the heavy combat by the time I made it to North Africa, having, as regular readers will recall, been held up in Burma. But I was determined to see whatever was left of the fighting, so upon my arrival at the headquarters of 119th Division outside Ghezala, Tunisia, I found a young corporal named Milo Jorgenson who had temporary ownership of a jeep.
“So, where are we going, Corporal?” I asked him.
“Nowhere good, ma’am. There’s a squad in a ravine up in them mountains, there? Got themselves some Kraut dead-enders that didn’t get the word that it’s over, I guess. SNAFU.”
SNAFU, ladies, is the acronym of choice for GIs. It stands for Situation Normal: All Fouled Up. Though another word is sometimes substituted for Fouled .
Corporal Jorgenson agreed (after a negotiation involving a carton of cigarettes) to allow me to tag along on a mission to run ammunition to the infantry squad deep in the rugged foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
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