Day Without End , originally published in 1949 and reissued in 1951 as Combat , is a fictional account of a U.S. Army platoon fighting in the difficult hedgerow country of Normandy, France, several weeks after the June 1944 D-Day landings. The book follows the battle-weary infantrymen, led by Lieutenant Paul Roth, during the course of a single, gut-wrenching day near St. Lo. Their relief, promised for many days, has not come, and except for a handful of green replacements, all of the men are approaching an acute state of battle fatigue. From a pre-dawn patrol to a terrible twilight, Roth's platoon is followed through every protracted moment of a day that seems to have been diverted from the normal course of time and to run on forever.