Twenty-five Yards of War: The Extraordinary Courage of Ordinary Men in World War II

rom the sinking decks of a navy cruiser to the cockpit of a doomed B-25 bomber, Ronald J. Drez takes us to the front lines of World War II. Through Drez's gripping narrative style, we meet twelve men, all ordinary soldiers, and learn what the war was like through their eyes, experiencing their own 'twenty-five yards of war.' The men in these pages represent all branches of the military who were sent on impossible missions, where they witnessed triumphs and tragedies. As a result of Drez's ten years of research and over 1,400 interviews, Twenty-Five Yards of War is a tribute to all of the soldiers who fought in World War II-those who walked away with amazing stories to tell, and those who did not make it home.

Ronald J. Drez, a decorated combat marine of the Vietnam War, has made it his life's work to preserve the voices of the men who fought in World War II. He is a historian, lecturer, and research associate at the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. He was editor of Voices of D-Day, and lives in New Orleans.