Moments of private life and major events of the Twentieth Century are interwoven, on the thread of memories, in this book (even if it is not always easy to reconstruct all of them in the right sequence). As it often happens, personal testimonies have the merit of giving posterity a genuine vision of what happened: Italy’s Fascist era, the WWII, the immense trage-dies that primarily hit the innocent population… In these difficult years lived Michele, father of the author andprotagonist of these pages. Arrested for desertion and sent to the Marche region, enlisted into a German military com- pany committed to defend a bridge from the advance of the allies. Fear, hardships and that “sergeant’s egg”, conquered with cunning and a pinch of recklessness… A story of great humanity and high documental value, important for under-standing all the significant moments of Italian history. Fear, hardships and that Sergeant’s egg conquered with cunning and a pinch of recklessness… Suddenly came out a gunshot from a bunch of boys… Many youngsters were screaming without knowing why.