Sergeant Mackenzie, the soundtrack made famous in Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson's award winning film "We Were Soldiers" has become iconic and much revered by veterans and their families the world over. This narrative is a fictionalised account of the real characters and events that inspired the "Highland Lament." The Great War saw many ordinary men and women do extraordinary things. This book features the great feats of valour and heroism performed by a group of just such men and women. It is the story of Sergeant Charles Stuart MacKenzie of the Seaforth Highlanders, Floyd Gibbons an American war correspondent, Marthe Cnockaert a Belgian nurse who had a daring dual life and Martin KÖhler a young German soldier who offered a moment of kindness to an enemy in the midst of carnage and madness. The actions of these people and many more will move you, inspire you and help you to remember all that they and millions more sacrificed for our freedom. This is a book about the people caught up in a conflict they didn't understand but who held on to their humanity in the darkest of times.