An Army at Dawn
by Rick Atkinson
Traces the progress of the United States Army from just before Operation Torch (the invasion of German-controlled north Africa in late 1942 through to the destruction of the Axis forces in Tunisia in 1943.
The story begins with very detailed accounts of the invasion phase - at Oran, Algiers and Casablanca. Next is the first ineffective attempt at taking Tunis- if it was successful, it could have shortened the effort and suffering significantly. As it was, the attempt failed, and the Germans were permitted to bolster their forces for a longer, tougher fight. The story includes the arrival of the British 8th Army from the east, and the awkward interaction with the American efforts in the west. Despite Rommel's presence, the Allies eventually overwhelm the axis forces, and finally take Bizerte and Tunis.
In the book, there are some interesting details that are not well know by the layman. For example, French soldiers resisted the invasion with varying degrees of intensity- some very much so- and actually wore battle decorations for this resistance after changing sides in the conflict to fight the Germans and Italians along side the Americans and British. Many US officers (Patton, Bradley, etc.), did not trust the British, feeling that they were happier to see US casualties than their own. Similarly, British Generals (Montgomery, Alexander, etc.), though that US infantry were poorly trained and not very useful. Both were true to a certain extent, and this was one of the many aspects of the Alliance that Eisenhower had to manage.
Interestingly, the Germans had their own leadership challenges- one in particular, when General Rommel chased the US Army up the Kasserine Pass- he may well have chased the Americans right out of Tunisia, and up to the coast in Algeria, had not his colleague, General Armin, taken half of his tank strength- for no good reason. That ended up being very good for the Allies, and very unfortunate for the Axis.
The book also contains some extremely vivid technical accounts - for example, you could actually watch the path of a German 88mm gun's anti-tank shell from afar by the sand and dust that it sucked up as it traversed the desert floor at head level, at over 2500 feet per second. The German tanks for the most part, out-classed the Allied tanks in terms of general design, armour and gun quality, forcing the Allies to rely on quantity over quality (which, fortunately, they could do).
This book was very well researched, and contains loads of info about the all of the major (and many minor) events and all of the major (and many minor) characters. A good measure of a military book is the quantity and quality of the maps accompanying the text; the maps in this book were some of the best I've ever seen. The work was very well done, and is highly readable. Highly recommended to the history buff, or even those with casual interest.
