This is Che's own story - how a small band within a few months was transformed into a Rebel Army. The Episodes start with the baptism of fire at that first, almost fatal battle in December 1956, when Che thought for certain he was dead and cover the eight months during which the Rebel Army took shape in the Sierra. The four articles which have been added as an appendix place this crucial formative period in the context of the entire war. In them, Che tells of the invasion of the plains in 1958 that culminated in the fall of the city of Santa Clara - the decisive battle of which Che was chief strategist ­ leading to the flight of dictator Fulgencio Batista and the victory of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.