Based on the war diaries of John Raycroft and on a lifetime of reflection, the book takes the reader on a guided tour of the ground-level experiences of a small-town Canadian boy, from his training at Camp Petawawa and Kingston to the soggy battlefields of the Netherlands to the Canadian Army of Occupation in Germany. Raycroft's journey provides the reader with an articulate and thought-provoking answer to the question "What was it like to be there?"