When Ray Ward died in 1999, his sons discovered an old and dusty manuscript in an Afrika Korps ammunition box in the cellar of the family home in Glasgow. These papers contained a collection of their father's memoirs, which detailed his experiences as an infantry officer during the Second World War, when he served in the 1st Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His memoirs give vivid accounts of Ray Ward's time in Eritrea, Abyssinia, Egypt, the Western Desert, Sicily and mainland Italy, and bring to life individual episodes of bravery, adventure and danger that characterised the North African and Italian campaigns.