Despite the fame of works like [The Naked and the Dead], and [The Thin Red Line], I find this to be the most nearly perfect novel about military action in World War II. It is very concise, taking a single action in a single battle by one platoon, and sustains interest in an astonishingly large group of characters for such a short book. The dialogue is wonderful--not very realistic, but artfully crafted to individualize each particular soldier while revealing the essential sameness of all G.I.s.

Were it just the above, it would still be a very entertaining read and make the basis for a fine movie--which it did. But what sets it above most other novels is that it goes beyond character study and exciting descriptions of battle, and really gets into the concept of What Is Leadership? The platoon loses its officers long before really starting on its assignment, and as the rank system is tested by action, the natural leadership qualities that exist in some individuals assert themselves, and in the end the non-com Tyne, inferior in rank to other non-coms in the platoon, finds command devolving upon him, and is surprised, perhaps, to find that he is up for it.

This sounds rather didactic, but it isn't that way at all as one reads it, and a casual reader might miss this aspect of the book altogether. The fact it functions so well as an entertainment may, in fact, have prevented it from getting the recognition it deserves. ( )

Brown wrote a concise account of one day in the War with a platoon of US soldiers as they land in Italy and work their way inland to attack their farmhouse objective. Each man faces his own demons differently as they come under attack from artillery, planes of enemy armour. This was turned into a wonderful 1945 film by the same title starring Dana Andrews & Richard Conte. ( )