Eclipse was the code name given by the Allies to the occupation of Germany. Moorehead's book describes his experiences in Sicily and southern Italy in 1943, which culminated in the capture of Rome. He tells the electrifying story of D-Day, the liberation of Paris, and the Allied advance through northern France and Belgium, the crossing of the Rhine.

The author reconstructs, in terrifying detail, the collapse of Germany, the wholesale destruction, mass surrenders, and the unimaginable horrors of the concentration camps.