The secret letters -- Introduction: "Your country needs you, young ladies" -- Part I. "In the event of total war women will be needed" -- Twenty-eight acres of girls -- "This is a man's size job, but I seem to be getting away with it" -- The most difficult problem -- "So many girls in one place" -- Part II. "Over all this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme" -- "It was heart-rending" -- "Q for communications" -- The forlorn shoe -- "Hell's half-acre" -- "It was only human to complain" -- Pencil-pushing mamas sink the shipping of Japan -- Part III. The tide turns -- Sugar camp -- "All my love, Jim" -- "Enemy landing at the mouth of the Seine" -- Teedy -- The surrender message -- Good-bye to Crow -- Epilogue: The mitten.