Roland Griffiths-Marsh was just sixteen years old when he enlisted to fight with the Australian Imperial Force in the Second World War. By war's end, he was an old man of twenty-two who would remain haunted by his wartime experiences for the rest of his life. Told with the heart of a true warrior-poet, this is Griffiths-Marsh's searing, real-life coming-of-age story. A first hand account of the Australian Digger at war, from the billiard table-flat deserts of North Africa, the ruins of the fortress of Tobruk, the fragrant olive groves of Greece and Crete, to the seedy back-alleys of Australia's cities and then to the dank jungles of Borneo. A decorated infanteer and special forces operative, the author pulls no punches in this classic anti-war tale. Winner of the Victorian Premier's inaugural Literary Award Prize for Non-Fiction and winner of the Best Australian Book of the Year from the Foundation of Australian Literary Studies when published under its original title, "The Sixpenny Soldier".