It is 1am when the soldiers are woken with an urgent �Alert! Alert! Alert!� They have had one hour�s sleep but must immediately march through the Corsican mountains until sunrise. Then the commando instructors take over. The men run, forward roll and crawl on their bellies. Their bodies ache and their hands are swollen with cuts and blisters. The next order is to engage in unarmed combat and for three hours they attack and strangle each other.