Duration Plus Six

Our hero spent three years in Africa and Italy. He was never shot at, hit no beach, dug no foxhole, but his memoir shows that it was was exciting behind the lines, too; not everyone could be in the front lines. In January of 1944 he joined the crew of a B25 bomber being ferried overseas to be used in "Operation Dragoon" - the invasion of southern France. In March, his troopship en route to Casablanca dodged a U-Boat in mid-Atlantic by turning back and sailing westward for half a day. He was stationed in exotic Marrakech, then Dakar, and then in Italy. He experienced rousing flights into Russian-controlled Budapest and Bucharest; encounters in Naples alleys with black marketers in cigarettes; young prostitutes pimped by kid brothers; and on days off, the Opera. At wars end he married a beautiful girl he had met in Chicago while in the Service. A Hollywood ending.