The definitive, three-volume history of the Desert War 1940-1943

The Crucible of War: Western Desert, 1941

Pitt, Barrie

JONATHAN CAPE.

The Crucible of War: Year of Alamein, 1942 (Bk. 2)

Churchill and the Generals

Biographies & Memoirs

SIDGWICK JACKSON

When Sir Archibald Wavell assumed command of the British forces in North Africa, he had no choice but to keep Egypt from falling to the Axis. A defeat would give Hitler access to the Red Sea, and with it access to the oil-rich Persian Gulf and even to India. Because of Wavell's limited resources, he decided attack was the best form of defense. Wavell's brilliant campaign was carried out by his field commander, General Richard O'Connor, who routed Marshal Rodolfo Graziani's Italian forces, took thousands of prisoners, and pushed the Italians back hundreds of miles. The exhilarating and essential victory was short-lived, lasting only a few months until Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps entered the conflict in early 1941.

The Crucible of War: Wavell's Command: The Definitive History of the Desert War - Volume 1

History

Military

Cassell

In the second volume, Churchill replaces Sir Claude Auchinleck as commander-in-chief with Field Marshal Harold Alexander, and places Bernard Montgomery over the Eighth Army. Prior to the changes of command, Auchinleck stopped Rommel's Afrika Korps for the first time at the first battle of Alamein in July, 1942. Still, the Axis forces remained dangerous. The pair's new commands coincided with the arrival of matériel sufficient to give the Allies overwhelming superiority in the field. Montgomery duly planned for a second battle at Alamein six months after the first. The eventual encounter gained a decisive second desert victory, the first since O'Connor's against the Italians nearly two years before. The victory signaled the beginning of the end of the Axis in North Africa.

The Crucible of War: Auchinleck's Command: The Definitive History of the Desert War - Volume 2

UNKNO

The third volume explains how the Allies fared in their early efforts to defend Egypt from the wiles of Field Marshal Rommel and the German Afrika Korps. The series of Allied victories in the North African desert that routed the Italian defenders came to an abrupt end with Rommel's arrival on the scene. In the early clashes with the Afrika Korps, Britain's Field Marshal Richard O'Connor was captured, and Field Marshal Archibald Wavell was replaced as commander-in-chief by Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck. Auchinleck had been an excellent soldier, but his choice of commanders turned out to be a disaster, as they were out-thought and out-fought by Rommel. Ultimately, Auckinleck himself took command and ended Rommel's immediate threat.

The Crucible of War: Montgomery and Alamein

Two great battles at sea--and the ultimate triumph of British revenge. In 1914, Great Britain's naval supremacy was challenged as the Imperial German Navy shattered their fleet at Coronel, in Chile. Under orders from First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and Lord Fisher, First Sea Lord, a powerful force set sail to the southern seas. And, when the Germans went to attack the Falklands, the British were ready and waiting.

Coronel and Falkland: Two Great Naval Battles of the First World War

One of the most dramatic war stories ever, recounted in brilliant style, with extraordinary "before" and "after" photos, maps, and diagrams. On April 23, 1918, British warships raided the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, hoping to stop German U-boats from using it as a base. The men, volunteers all, knew they were unlikely to survive--and they weren't wrong. This graphic page-turner honors the soldiers who died and pays full justice to a night of exceptional heroism.

Zeebrugge: Eleven Vcs Before Breakfast (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Action photographs, paintings by Allied and German combat artists, and text vividly reconstruct the events of the fierce four-year struggle against German aggression at sea

The Battle of the Atlantic (World War II #5)

Americas

Time-Life Education

By 1918, after three years of war, Europe was weary of the stalemate and the terrible slaughter on the Western Front. The Russian Front had collapsed but the United States had abandoned her neutral stance and joined the Allies.  So the stage was set for what would be the last year of the Great War. Acclaimed military historian Barrie Pitt describes the savage battles that raged unceasingly along the Western front, and analyses the policies of the warring powers and studies the men who led them. From the German onslaught of 21st March 1918 - the Kaiser's Battle designed to force a resolution before America's armies could tip the balance - through the struggles in Champagne and the Second Battle of the Marne to the turning point in August and final victory, the author gathers together scattered material to make an enthralling book.

1918: The Last Act

Europe

Pan/Macmillan

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