This book tells the story of a platoon of eighteen men, under the command of a twenty year old man. I cannot imagine being a teenager in war, and I certainly cannot imagine being in command of a bunch of other people and being responsible for their lives. They were outnumbered, but wound up killing several hundred Germans before they ran out of ammunition and got taken as prisoners of war. War is such an ugly thing, and I cannot imagine being in this position, especially freezing to death in the winter. Alex Kershaw is a great writer, and I enjoy his books a lot.