An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy)

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy)
by Rick Atkinson

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Rick Atkinson
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2007-05-15
ISBN: 0805087249
Number of pages: 768
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

Book Reviews of An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy)

Book Review: Easy to understand the Pulitzer...
Summary: 5 Stars

This book is the first of Atkinson's three book "liberation trilogy" which provides an overview of the campaigns that eventually led to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.

Above all else, this book's historical narrative is so well written that the book simply refuses to let you loose until the job is finished and the book completed. Atkinson's writing is very well executed and unlike many books covering military operations, the story he weaves is consistent, clear and a pleasure to read.

This title covers the North African theater from Operation Torch in 1942 until the last German and Italian troops were evacuated or captured in Tunisia in 1943. The North African campaign is frequently seen as a backwater and doesn't receive the attention of the later Italian, Normandy and Bulge campaigns. However Atkinson's thesis is that every subsequent Allied (or at least the U.S. Army) victory, would not have been possible if the Allies had not attacked North Africa first.

The author shows the US Army's maturation as the crucible of battle transforms the men of the raw American war machine from a gang of inexperienced citizen-soldiers into a highly effective, efficient, and well led army that lead the defeat of Germany's vaunted Wehrmacht in Western Europe.

Covering the North African campaign at the operation and strategic levels, Atkinson's text does a terrific job illustrating the leadership problems of coalition armies. Showing that the Allies did not just "click" because they were united in opposition to Hitler's Axis powers. The text discusses the tensions that existed between the American and British leadership and does a good job of giving General Eisenhouer "his due" as the right man, in the right place, at the right time (albeit one who had to learn his job and role). That Atkinson does so, with such a wealth of intimate detail, is clearly the result of many hours of research into contemporary first-person resources -- as evidenced by the hefty section of notes found at the end of the book.

My only criticism of the book is that the graphics (maps and illustrations) are a little sparse (in particular the maps) and while they do an adequate job of illustrating the text, I wish they were more detailed. Absolutely a recommended read.

Summary of An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy)

In An Army at Dawn,, a comprehensive look at the 1942-1943 Allied invasion of North Africa, author Rick Atkinson posits that the campaign was, along with the battles of Stalingrad and Midway, where the "Axis ... forever lost the initiative" and the "fable of 3rd Reich invincibility was dissolved." Additionally, it forestalled a premature and potentially disastrous cross-channel invasion of France and served as a grueling "testing ground" for an as-yet inexperienced American army. Lastly, by relegating Great Britain to what Atkinson calls the status of "junior partner" in the war effort, North Africa marked the beginning of American geopolitical hegemony. Although his prose is occasionally overwrought, Atkinson's account is a superior one, an agile, well-informed mix of informed strategic overview and intimate battlefield-and-barracks anecdotes. (Tobacco-starved soldiers took to smoking cigarettes made of toilet paper and eucalyptus leaves.) Especially interesting are Atkinson's straightforward accounts of the many "feuds, tiffs and spats" among British and American commanders, politicians, and strategists and his honest assessments of their--and their soldiers'--performance and behavior, for better and for worse. This is an engrossing, extremely accessible account of a grim and too-often overlooked military campaign. --H. O'Billovich
In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in WW II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa

The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.

Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.

Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.

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