Drawing on the family papers of a soldier killed in combat, a leading historian illuminates the details of the battle of Mont St Quentin and the losses and lives of the survivors and their families in the aftermath of the Great War. On September 1, 1918, the dozen men of Nine Platoon, 21st Australian Infantry Battalion, rose from Elsa Trench and walked across a weedy beet field toward the German defenders of Mont St Quentin. Within hours, three were dead and five more were wounded, one of whom died six weeks later. Through news accounts and interviews assembled by the father of one of the slain soldiers, this history examines the events of the day, and the repercussions for the survivors in the six decades that followed this traumatic event.