It is 1943 & Captain Mike Blackwood Royal Marine Commando is a survivor. Young toughened & tried in the hellish crucible of Burma he labours sometimes faltering beneath the weight of tradition the glorious heritage of his family & the burden of his own self-doubt. For Blackwood the horizon is not the lip of the trench seen by men of the Corps in the previous war but the ramp of a landing craft smashing down into the sea & the fire of the enemy on a Sicilian beach. Here tradition is not enough & Mike Blackwood must find within himself qualities of leadership which will inspire those Royal Marines who are once again the first to land & among the first to die. This is the fourth novel in the Blackwood saga spanning 150 years in the history of a great seafaring family & the tradition in which they served.