November 1942. An Italian battalion is trapped in the desert at El Alamein. Three tanks ahead. Fourteen armored vehicles behind them.
Major Paolo Caccia Dominioni of the 31st Engineer Battalion had one order: get his men out.
He dropped into a depression in the sand and tried to break through. Half the battalion made it to the coast. His unit was the only intact Italian formation of the X Corps to escape the encirclement.
After the war, Dominioni went back to El Alamein. Not to fight. To find the dead. For more than a decade he searched the desert, recovered thousands of remains, and helped build the Italian military memorial that still stands there.
