An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943

Amazon.com
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


From Publishers Weekly
Atkinson won a Pulitzer Prize during his time as a journalist and editor at the Washington Post and is the author of The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 and of Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. In contrast to Crusade's illustrations of technomastery, this book depicts the U.S. Army's introduction to modern war. The Tunisian campaign, Atkinson shows, was undertaken by an American army lacking in training and experience alongside a British army whose primary experience had been of defeat. Green units panicked, abandoning wounded and weapons. Clashes between and within the Allies seemed at times to overshadow the battles with the Axis. Atkinson's most telling example is the relationship of II Corps commander George Patton and his subordinate, 1st Armored Division's Orlando Ward. The latter was a decent person and capable enough commander, but he lacked the final spark of ruthlessness that takes a division forward in the face of heavy casualties and high obstacles. With Dwight Eisenhower's approval, Patton fired him. The result was what Josef Goebbels called a "second Stalingrad"; after Tunisia, the tide of war rolled one way: toward Berlin. Atkinson's visceral sympathies lie with Ward; his subtext from earlier books remains unaltered: in war, they send for the hard men. Despite diction that occasionally lapses into the melodramatic, general readers and specialists alike will find worthwhile fare in this intellectually convincing and emotionally compelling narrative. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A former staff writer and editor for the Washington Post, Atkinson (The Long Gray Line) here offers the initial volume in a trilogy concerning the liberation of Europe during World War II. The invasion of North Africa was the first joint military operation conducted by the Allies, and it influenced many future decisions. Using battlefield reports and archival material, Atkinson tells a fascinating story of the North African campaign that is hard to stop reading, even though one knows the outcome. He includes the perfect combination of biographical information and tactical considerations, and eyewitness accounts give readers an idea of what the average soldier must have endured. Similar in scope to Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers or Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day, this book will have wide appeal for both public and academic libraries. Mark Ellis, Albany State Univ. Lib., GACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Atkinson, author of the best-selling The Long Grey Line (1989), a chronicle of the West Point class of 1966, here debuts an ambitious three-volume saga about the North African and European theaters of World War II. This first volume covers the conception of Operation Torch through the German surrender in Tunisia in May 1943 and reveals the author's skill in balancing big-picture strategizing with unit-level tactical fighting. And though well researched, Atkinson's diligence is artfully masked by his fluid narrative. To be sure, the author hews to the general historical verdict that Torch was a strategically dubious operation, and the campaign that ensued was the veritable definition of snafu. Atkinson, understanding the inherent terror and confusion of combat, and hence the difficulty in relating it, fixes on the clarifying tool of topography. The ground of every battle is precisely assessed, with the author apprising readers of how often the experienced German army was superior to the green American army in exploiting hills and roads. Having personally tramped over the battlefields in Morocco and Tunisia, Atkinson incorporates their look--the mud, the dust, and the cactus. An exemplary work that feeds anticipation of the succeeding volumes. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"An Army at Dawn may be the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan's classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far." -The Wall Street Journal

"Exceptional . . . A work strong in narrative flow and character portraits of the principle commanders . . . [A] highly pleasurable read." -The New York Times Book Review

"A splendid book . . . The emphasis throughout is on the human drama of men at war." -The Washington Post Book World

"Atkinson's account will be a monument among accounts of World War II." -John S. D. Eisenhower, author of Allies and The Bitter Woods

"One of the most compelling pieces of military history I've ever read." -Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA (ret.), former NATO Supreme Commander

"A master of the telling profile . . . This vivid, personality-driven account of the campaign to drive Axis forces from North Africa shows the political side of waging war, even at the tactical level." -Chicago Tribune

"An Army at Dawn is more than a military history, it is a social and psychological inquiry as well." -Paul Fussell, author of Doing Battle and Wartime

"Brilliant . . . This is history and war in the hands of a gifted and unflinching writer." -The Kansas City Star



Review
"An Army at Dawn may be the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan's classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far." -The Wall Street Journal

"Exceptional . . . A work strong in narrative flow and character portraits of the principle commanders . . . [A] highly pleasurable read." -The New York Times Book Review

"A splendid book . . . The emphasis throughout is on the human drama of men at war." -The Washington Post Book World

"Atkinson's account will be a monument among accounts of World War II." -John S. D. Eisenhower, author of Allies and The Bitter Woods

"One of the most compelling pieces of military history I've ever read." -Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA (ret.), former NATO Supreme Commander

"A master of the telling profile . . . This vivid, personality-driven account of the campaign to drive Axis forces from North Africa shows the political side of waging war, even at the tactical level." -Chicago Tribune

"An Army at Dawn is more than a military history, it is a social and psychological inquiry as well." -Paul Fussell, author of Doing Battle and Wartime

"Brilliant . . . This is history and war in the hands of a gifted and unflinching writer." -The Kansas City Star



Review
"An Army at Dawn may be the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan's classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far." -The Wall Street Journal

"Exceptional . . . A work strong in narrative flow and character portraits of the principle commanders . . . [A] highly pleasurable read." -The New York Times Book Review

"A splendid book . . . The emphasis throughout is on the human drama of men at war." -The Washington Post Book World

"Atkinson's account will be a monument among accounts of World War II." -John S. D. Eisenhower, author of Allies and The Bitter Woods

"One of the most compelling pieces of military history I've ever read." -Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA (ret.), former NATO Supreme Commander

"A master of the telling profile . . . This vivid, personality-driven account of the campaign to drive Axis forces from North Africa shows the political side of waging war, even at the tactical level." -Chicago Tribune

"An Army at Dawn is more than a military history, it is a social and psychological inquiry as well." -Paul Fussell, author of Doing Battle and Wartime

"Brilliant . . . This is history and war in the hands of a gifted and unflinching writer." -The Kansas City Star



Book Description
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of miscalculation and incomparable courage, of calamity and enduring triumph. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson focuses on 1942 and 1943, showing how central the great drama that unfolded in North Africa was to the ultimate victory of the Allied powers and to America's understanding of itself.

Opening 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 Algiers, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and often poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but flawed commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.

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



About the Author
Rick Atkinson is a staff writer for The Washington Post, currently on assignment in Iraq. He is the bestselling author of The Long Gray Line and Crusade. His many awards include the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.



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Rick Atkinson has done a beautiful job of research and writing in An Army At Dawn. This is the North African campaign--warts, snafus, feuding allies, incompetents, barely competents--unvarnished. It whets my appetite for the rest of the Liberation Trilogy Atkinson has promised us.  — co-author of We Were Soldiers Once...and Young


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