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Recommended books on the Desert War?


Procopius

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Hullo all,

Lately I've decided to make the great mistake of buying 1/35 armour kits (I say buying, rather than building, because as a new father, I only have enough time to online shop during my lunch break), and I've been rekindling my boyhood interest in the fighting in the Western Desert. Now, I have a few books already -- Alan Moorehead's trilogy; Fraser's biography of Rommel; Hamilton and Lewin's biographies of Montgomery; Bungay's book on Alamein; Niall Barr's The Pendulum of War, which I think is one of the finest books of military history I've ever read; Crisp's Brazen Chariots; Biernan's War Without Hate; etc -- but I realized I don't particularly know a great deal about the pre- and post- Alamein parts of the fighting. Can anyone recommend some good books covering the Desert War before Alamein (particularly Operation CRUSADER) and after Second Alamein and into Tunis?

Many thanks!

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Suggest "Fighting the Desert Fox" by John Delaney to get info on the pre-Alamein era and maybe "The Desert Generals" by Cornelli Barnett.

For a general overview of this and other battles "And we shall shock them" by David Fraser. "Eighth army's greatest victories" by Adrian Stewart also comes to mind.

"Land battles: North Africa, Sicily and Italy", by Trevor DuPuy; "The battle for North Africa" by John Strawson; "The Desert War", by George Forty also will give good overviews.

From a modellers point of view any of the Times media, Life images or similar pictorial history books would be great for diorama guidance....the desert was not as flat and sandy as many believe when thinking about the Sahara desert. Also books about the Abysinian campaign (mainly fought by South African troops) makes an interesting addition to the desert campaigns. Also look at the Osprey books: British tanks in N Africa; Battle Orders 28 (Desert Rats); Men-at-arms 368 "Middle East"; and MAA066 Montgomery's Desert Army. Tobruk 1941 by John Latimer and Desert Rat 1940-1943 by Steve Noon will also add information.

Most of those are / were in my library.

Regards

Tim

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  • 2 weeks later...

James Holland is, as ever, very readable in "Together We Stand":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WDT65S2

And, like his masterful "Most Dangerous Enemy", about the Battle of Britain, Stephen Bungay brings a different and fascinating perspective to the table in "Alamein"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1854109294

which, despite its title, is about the whole North African campaign ...

[EDIT: just noticed you mentioned this one, sorry, As I say, though, it isn't just about Alamein]

bestest,

M.

Edited by cmatthewbacon
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Destiny in the Desert by Jinathon Dimbleby is what you need. Not only is it superbly written but he gives context to the conflict in the desert - looking at the battles, generals and the background politics. I am reading his next book about the war in the Atlantic and this is just as good!

Chris

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Try also 'Crucible of War 1941' two volumes by Barrie Pitt, covers 1940 till post Alamein. For The Tunisian campaign 'An Army at Dawn' the American and British in Operation Torch 1942-43 by Rick Atkinson, a real eyeopener.

A happy coincidence! I just ordered Pitt's trilogy on the Desert War yesterday afternoon. Haven't read Atkinson yet, I was worried his books were too much popular histories for a US audience. Glad to read they're more than that.

And, like his masterful "Most Dangerous Enemy", about the Battle of Britain, Stephen Bungay brings a different and fascinating perspective to the table in "Alamein"...

The most revealing part for me was when he was describing the internal culture of my employer, only to then reveal he was talking about the Italian Army...

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Hard to single another out after the above recommendations but one I read recently which struck me as a very readable over view of the Nth African campaign is "Alamein, War Without Hate" by John Bierman & Colin Smith which like the Bungay book of the same name covers the whole campaign. My Dad served as a MO thoughout the desert campaigns up till about the time of Alamein & he had several books on individual parts of the Nth African campaign that units he was attached to had been involved in but this books served to put those books into an overall perspective very well. Good luck.

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

A good source on the early campaign is The First Victory: General O'Connor's Desert Triumph Dec 1940 - Feb 1941 George Forty.

Pretty good and cheap online with plenty of photographs and a rather populist account of the campaign. But IMHO the pictures make the book even though some are well known they are all in one place with good captions.

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Large parts of it cover matters other than the actual shooting, but to read some interesting works from the German perspective, I recommend Germany & The Second World War vol 3. As the OUP have kindly published it in paperback, it's now available at a much more reasonable price (still expensive, though). One caveat: I don't know whether they skimped on the maps when they went to the paperback edition.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/germany-and-the-second-world-war-9780198738329?lang=en&cc=gb#

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For a very different, irreverant and somewhat bawdy take on it, you might try Spike Milligan's 'Rommel? Gunner Who?".

David

A good and very funny read, but its about the Tunisian campaign rather than the desert war.

Selwyn

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  • 3 weeks later...

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