Many people will read this fast-moving, dramatic, funny and poignant novel about Allied prisoners in World War II, and say, "This is the way it was." David Westheimer, author of the highly successful Von Ryan's Express, has captured the fear and excitement of combat, the intensity of friendships formed under wartime pressures, the challenge of the dangerous and the unfamiliar. The young sentry is one of four American fliers who survive the crash of their bomber, HIGH FLYING FLORA, which is shot down over the coast of southern Italy. The men are captured by the Italians, and three are sent to a P.O.W. camp southeast of Rome. The contrasting personalities of the characters lead to conflicts. Byrd is married, steady, sensible. Moran is unmarried, rugged and impious. Lang, who is called "Blubberbutt" by the crew, is naive, fearful and self-conscious about his weight. In the Italian camp, these three learn to adjust, more or less -- to steal, hoard and trade food and other small amenities; to plot and attempt escapes; to adapt to strange and uncomfortable conditions; to fight boredom; to discover previously unrealized resources in themselves, to survive their hardships and be strengthened by them. After the Allied invasion of Italy the Germans take over the camp and transport the prisoners to Germany. Here, as he had shown signs of doing in Italy, Lang continues to grow up. He slims down physically, stands up to the camp bully, gains self-confidence, earns the friendship of the rank and file of the other prisoners and, of supreme importance to his ego, the genuine affection of Moran, whose bravura he has always envied and who in their months together in HIGH FLYING FLORA had treated him with goodnatured contempt. To the reader's immense satisfaction, Lang, somewhat unexpectedly, meets his challenge successfully, and the Lang-Moran relationship becomes a solid and touching thing. When the war ends and the camp in Germany is finally liberated, Steve Lang is a new man.