wendy bertsch

The war is raging through Italy in 1943, and a young Canadian soldier struggles to stay alive. But nothing can dampen his sense of humour—not hunger or horror or the shellfire that doesn’t always miss. Not month after month in the thick of the fight. Tommy is irrepressible.

It doesn’t sound like much fun? Well, it is...the way Tommy tells it.

Make no mistake. Tommy’s not fictional. He was a real soldier, and these things happened to him—all of them.

Excerpt:

The Germans, always with an eye to the main chance, had taken the opportunity to shoot at that arm, and they’d got me in the shoulder… As if this day wasn’t already bad enough!
My shoulder was hurting like hell, and I wasn’t about to move right away. I lay real still. If they see me, I thought, maybe they’ll think I’m dead.
One of our officers stopped beside me.
“We’re getting out of here. Tommy…can you walk?”
“Walk?” I declared, “…watch me run!”