This book is about Sergeant Edward Henry George Williams of the Second Battalion, the Wiltshire Regiment. Henry is a member of the British army and is stationed in France in 1940 during what was known as the Sitzkrieg. The Germans had unleashed their lightning war against Poland in 1939 and Britain and France had immediately declared war against them. However, in the west all was quiet until May of 1940.

The Germans unleashed their powerful army through Luxembourg and Belgium and in a few short weeks, Belgium and France were defeated and the British forces on the continent retreated to the port of Dunkerque. In an incredible feat of daring and luck, the British were able to extract most of the troops in their army, along with small numbers of French and Belgians. In history classes, this is considered a victory for the British, when in fact it was a complete defeat. Had the Germans not been so swift in their victory, they would have ground the British army into nothing.

This is the story of the retreat and evacuation as it was. It is a combination of bravery, humiliation, death, defeat, fear, stoic carrying on and often an every man for himself situation. The British scored an amazing propaganda coup when they were able to turn such a crushing defeat into what appeared to be a victory. Told from the perspective of Sergeant Williams, it is an excellent historical novel. While the story is fiction, it is based on facts and could easily have been a true story.