The Battle for North Africa, 1940-43
Caroline Metcalfe-Gibson (maps) New York, N.Y. Mason/Charter, 1975. Book Club Edition. Hardcover. xii, 500 pages. DJ has some wear, tears, and soiling. Includes List of Maps, List of Sketch Maps, List of Illustrations, and Preface. Chapters cover British Imperialism, German Professionalism; and American Materialism. Includes 9 maps, and 78 Sketch Maps, as well as 33 illustrations between pages 212 and 213. Bibliography. Index. The history of the North African Campaign is the story of an army forging itself into a superb fighting force from the debris of defeat and discouragement. Without the battle experience brought at such high cost by the Allied forces in North Africa, "Overlord"--the invasion of Europe--would never have been possible. Sir William Jackson, both a distinguished soldier who played a part in events related here and an experienced author of military history, surveys in one volume the checkered fortunes of Allied arms in three parts, starting with the Anglo-Italian campaigns in Libya and Abyssinia. The second part covers the exploits of Rommel's Afrika Korps. The tactical lessons which they taught their British opponents were not immediately understood. Bitter experience brought forward men and ideas, eventually turning the tide at El Alamein, but there was still a long way to go. Part Three surveys the impact of American intervention with its influx of men and material which led, after some brutal American defeats, to the final Axis surrender in Tunis, May 1943. General Sir William Godfrey Fothergill Jackson, GBE, KCB, MC & Bar (28 August 1917 – 12 March 1999) was a British Army officer, military historian, author and Governor of Gibraltar. Educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and King's College, Cambridge, William Jackson was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1937. He served with the British Army in Norway during the Second World War, where he was one of the first British officers to engage the enemy. His work in blowing up bridges as the British retreated from Lillehammer earned Jackson his first Military Cross (MC). He also served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy during the war. He joined Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters, where the invasion of Sicily was being planned. He won a Bar to his MC in 1944 at the Battle of Monte Cassino in recognition of "gallant and distinguished services". In 1970 Jackson was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command. He took the post of Military Historian at the Cabinet Office from 1977 to 1978 and then becoming Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar, overseeing the colony's transition to a British dependent territory. Jackson retired from his post in Gibraltar in 1982 (having had his tenure extended by a year) and returned to being historian at the Cabinet Office until 1987. The history of the North African Campaign is the story of an army forging itself into a superb fighting force from the debris of defeat and discouragement. Without the battle experience bought at such high cost by the Allied forces in North Africa, ‘Overlord’—the invasion of Europe would never have been possible. Sir William Jackson, both a distinguished soldier who played a part in events related here and an experienced author of military history, surveys in one volume the checkered fortunes of Allied arms in three parts, starting with the Anglo-Italian campaigns in Libya and Abyssinia. Although British forces destroyed Mussolini’s “Imperial Legions” their victories, paradoxically, were achieved too quickly and too easily. Had they occurred later Rommel would probably have been seeking fame in Russia rather than the Western Desert, and had they proved more difficult, British commanders might have developed tactics better suited to dealing with the ruthless professionalism of the Afrika Korps. The second part covers the exploits of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The tactical lessons which they taught their British opponents were not immediately understood. Bitter experience brought forward men and ideas, eventually turning the tide at E] Alamein, but there was still a long way to go. The Americans had yet to buy battle experience as well. Part Three surveys the impact of American intervention with its influx of men and material which led, after some brutal American defeats, to the final Axis surrender in Tunis, May 1943. Condition: Good / Good.
Keywords: North Africa, Rommel, Auchinleck, British Eighth Army, Bir el Gubi, Trigh Capuzzo, John Connell, Cyrenaica, El Alamein, Freyberg, William Gott, Kesselring, Bernard Law Montgomery, George Patton, Tobruk, Wavell, Metcalfe-Gibson
[Book #82329]
Price: $25.00