The authors present a case of war injury to the thoracic trachea with the defect involving more than half of its circumference. After minor difficulties in establishing the right diagnosis, we passed to the surgical procedure and managed the lesion by simple suture. The patient's postoperative course at the Intensive Care Unit was uneventful. Both early and late follow-up roentgenograms, computerized tomography of the trachea and bronchoscopy showed normal findings.