"An intimate history of the most important month of World War II, as experienced by the people who lived through it, completely based on their diaries, letters, and memoirs"--

"These are the combat experiences of the first Marine to command a special operations task force, recounted against a backdrop of his journey from raw Second Lieutenant to seasoned Colonel and Task Force Commander; from leading Marines through the streets of Mogadishu, Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul to directing multi-national special operations forces in a dauntingly complex fight against a formidable foe. The journey culminates in the story's centerpiece:...

Combines history with the author's family story to chronicle the outbreak of World War II and the events that led to the heroic evacuation of more than three hundred thousand British and Allied forces from Dunkirk over a nine-day period.