Publisher's Synopsis
Two French colonial infantry divisions unload in Naples, Italy in late 1944 for the Allied advance on Rome. An American general asks the French general to reassign his woman ambulance drivers to safer areas in the rear. He refuses. "The women of France, like the men are proud to die for their country." So begins the odyssey of the woman ambulance drivers of the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division in Italy. In late January 1944, the 4th Tunisian Tirailleur Infantry Regiment is assigned to cross the Rapid River and attack up the steep slopes of Belvedere Ridge northeast of Cassino. The women's ambulance detachment supports medical evacuations during this fierce two-week battle demonstrating qualities of fortitude and courage and ultimately self-sacrifice on the wintry roads on the far side of the river. events leading to the award of the first Medaille Militaire-France's highest valor decoration-to a woman soldier. This is historical fiction centered on an episode of epic history of one of the great Allied fighting armies of World War II, the now almost forgotten Armée d'Afrique of General Alphonse Juin.
