Vessel of Sadness — William Woodruff

Italy 1944 is the setting of one of the most convincing and quietly magnificent stories about man and war that has ever been written. They were young when they left and sang as they sailed down the Clyde. They didn''t know where they were going and they didn''t really care. They didn''t want to fight and they hardly knew what the war was about. But they went, together, singing, to what lay before them. Here, distilled from the experiences and observations of the author, who served in Italy in the British infantry, is the story of those who fought and died at Anzio.