As a teenager, Patrick Thomas was onboard the landing craft LCH 185 off the coast of Normandy when it struck a mine and sank, along with half its crew. Now in his nineties, Thomas meets archeologist John Henry Phillips, who is mesmerized by the account of his near-drowning and the impossible choice he was forced to make between saving the life of a best friend or a stranger. Phillips attempts to locate the last resting place of the sunken vessel, whilst grappling with the enormity of the sacrifices made by those young men in an era that is rapidly fading from memory. Suffused with reverence for the dead and fascination with the astonishing scale of the conflict, Phillips' book never loses sight of the achingly human stories at its heart. (BH)