Digging into the Normandy dirt, however, did not prove easy; the sweltering heat and alternating bouts of torrential rain left anything below the soft topsoil akin to Roman concrete. Bruce “Duke” Ducat, the diminutive, straight-talking corporal from B Company and self-proclaimed “lazy bastard,” took the easy route and employed a nearby drainage ditch as a ready-made slit. Smug and secure in his choice, he drew his rain cape across his body and drifted off, finally getting some sleep after nearly forty-eight hours on the move. A few hours later, Ducat awoke in horror to find “rats running over
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