Title: An Army at Dawn Pdf The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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.
Sensationalized I am halfway through the book and have found several inaccuracies but these are not really significant. The real point is that the author tells the story through a sort of condescending "Monday Morning Quarterback" style. This was a citizen army rushing into it's first ever major league conflict. The author seems to sort of have a joke about the shortcomings of the allies. I wouldn't read this as a first learning of the conflict. It's OK if you are quite familiar with what actually happened already. It is a kind of story composed of anecdotal pieces, interesting, but does not really combine to give the whole story. I feel that the author tried to make the work more interesting and entertaining rather getting to the heart of the matter. I admit that I am only half way through the book but that is increasingly my impression.An Army at Dawn: "In the night, all cats are grey..." (Updated August 13, 2013) Another volume can now be added to my personal list of "the best of the best" of history and biography: "An Army at Dawn," Rick Atkinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the North African campaign during World War II. This is indeed a very special book! Employing scrupulous and detailed research, and presented in a lively and penetrating narrative style, Atkinson, formerly an Assistant Managing Editor with "The Washington Post," has provided a thorough and penetrating examination of the Allied and Axis military campaigns in North Africa during 1942-43.From the outset, Atkinson pulls no punches in establishing the importance of the North African campaign to the overall Allied victory in World War II. In the book's Prologue he writes: "No twenty-first century reader can understand the ultimate triumph of the Allied powers in World War II in 1945 without a grasp of the large drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943."As Atkinson points out, that "large drama" was certainly a time of tremendous testing for the Allies. Operation TORCH, as the campaign to liberate North Africa from Nazi tyranny was called, began on November 8, 1942. Allied forces (predominantly British and American) made landings at several locations along a several hundred mile length of North African coastline. Even as these landings were being made, many critical difficulties reared their ugly heads. French army and navy forces occupying Morocco and Algeria not only refused to cooperate with the Allies; they actually turned their guns on the Americans and British. Acting under coercion from the Nazi government, which threatened to complete its conquest of France by taking control of Vichy France, French forces in North Africa fought tenaciously against the Allies for the first three days of Operation TORCH.Other, even more difficult problems beset the Allies. One of the great recurring themes of "An Army at Dawn" is the fundamental schism within the Allied ranks throughout the North African campaign. The British, already at war with Germany and Italy for over two years, resented American General Dwight D. Eisenhower's appointment as commander-in-chief of Allied forces. Eisenhower was considered inept; some of those judgments may have been justified. He seemed to concentrate his efforts on solving American-British-French political rivalries and crises rather than on winning the war in North Africa... so much so, that at one point U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall cabled Ike to "Delegate your international problems to your subordinates and give your complete attention to the battle in Tunisia."British and American forces were forced to struggle with internecine resentments and rivalries. They struggled to learn how to fight against a determined foe and how to hate the enemy they faced. By fighting and losing the battles they did in North Africa, British and American forces learned the fighting skills they ultimately used to take the war to its successful conclusion in 1945 the German homeland. Although many of Atkinson's historical judgments seem harsh in light of the ultimate Allied victory, he certainly backs up his arguments with well researched facts."An Army at Dawn" is a superb book in every respect. It combines first-class research with a polished, invigorating, and authoritative writing style. Highly deserving of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History, it is truly an essential work for an understanding of how the Allies gained victory in World War II, and one of the finest books on military history to appear in recent years."An Army at Dawn" is the first of three volumes of what Atkinson calls "The Liberation Trilogy." The second volume, "The Day of Battle," tells the story of the war in Sicily and Italy during 1943 and 1944. It was published in 2007. The final volume of this outstanding trilogy, published in 2013, is "The Guns at Last Light," which covers the war in western Europe from D-Day (June 6, 1944) to the final surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. All three volumes are available in Kindle editions.
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