In 2004 John Gimlette set off across Europe, following in the footsteps of one of the greatest armies ever assembled: The United States forces of 1944-45. His guide (emotionally if not geographically) was Putnum Flint, an 86-year-old Bostonian who had landed in Marseille in the midst of World War II with his tank destroyer battalion nicknamed "The Panthers." The book is an uncommonly evocative mixture of past and present, a meeting of cultures, and a deeply personal assessment of one of the most tumultuous periods in world history.