Time at War

Aged twenty, and with no war experience,Nicholas Mosley found himself in charge of aplatoon of men positioned along the Italian frontduring the Second World War. With his father inprison on charges of treason, he had enlisted primarilyin an effort to improve his family image. Butthe war left Mosley a radically changed man: hehad gone in out of personal convenience, and leftwith a sense of greater purpose. Saved from deathby one of his men, holed up in barns and trenchesand tents, and marching across Europe, Mosleyfound in war a certainty that eluded him in peacetime.?War is both senseless and necessary, squalidand fulfilling, terrifying and sometimes jolly,? hewrites. ?This is like life. Humans are at home in war(though they seldom admit this). They feel theyknow what they have to do.?