Olsen's true story of the massacre of Monte Sole is an overwhelming account of an outrage that has remained buried among the forgotten atrocities of World War II: the coldblooded murder by German soldiers of more than 1,800 Italian civilians, men, women, and children in the fall of 1944. Monte Sole had the bad luck to lie on the main route of withdrawal of the retreating German armies – a route vitally important to Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. Under the fierce command of Il Lupo (The Wolf), the partisans of the Stella Rossa, headquartered in the hills of Monte Sole, harassed the Germans by attacking convoys, derailing trains, even capturing the top-secret plans of the German Gothic Line. As the Allied advance stormed up Italy to the very shadow of Monte Sole, Axis frustration reached its peak. With full authorization of Kesselring, and with an infusion of dread SS reinforcements, the Germans deliberately set out to neutralize Monte Sole.