Cirrus@Austlit

'They are the veterans of the North African desert campaign, home for three weeks' leave after three long years at war – time to find the brothels, the black markets, the racketeers and the dollar-happy Yank servicemen.

'When a faceless madman in the War Office throws them into the shell-torn beaches, mountain trails and steaming jungles of New Guinea, they become creatures of the mud; walking skeletons racked with malaria. There are thousands of them.

'In the throes of battle, black clouds billow about the destroyers in the distance, piercing the darkness with savage explosions. In a merciless system of mutual slaughter, they must draw on every last ounce of their strength for a chance of survival against the raging fires of war, the endless jungle and the brutal enemy that lies within it.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Head of Zeus ed.)