The upperclassmen have complete control over the lowerclassmen (called "Zombies"), putting them under continual pressure to eliminate the less dedicated cadets. Demerits are handed out for any infractions of the rules: dusty shoes, not saluting or replying too slowly to questions and so on. The demerits add up to one hour walking tours with a rifle and...

My mother, more dutiful than my consort, was up frying bacon and eggs for me, made toast, poured juice and coffee; we had agreed that she would not provide anything so special as waffles or hash. My father had preceded me to the washroom, where I, soon to become EM № 3631-9558, now shaved. It was considered that seeing the soldier off to war was a man's job — said with a smile; the Dad wouldn't...

This is an account of my years in Italy under Nazi occupation and of the series of events that took me there. It is, of course, an account of my own personal experience but I hope it will give some idea of what the Italian people suffered in 1944 in the Fascist Republic of Salò, during the later stages of the Second World War.

The weather was bad, the troops in a poor mood. The Army was stuck; one could add brightly: “But the Russians are doing great.” This Front was beginning to look permanent. New things were being added. More and more ammunition and artillery and airplanes arrived so that the enemy was subjected to practically continuous bombardment and dared not move...

The worst campaign of the War — West of Russia, though some even doubt that — proceeded regardless. The soldiers could not believe that it would last so long: they kept expecting a breakthrough on some other part of the Front. The vast fleets of Allied tanks and vehicles could hardly be employed in the mountains and the mud.