Rommel's Desert War
Rommel's Desert War
Michael Kitchen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (2010)
Hardback: 616 Pages - 25 b/w illustrations
Our Price: £25.00
At the height of his power in January 1941 Hitler made the fateful decision to send troops to North Africa to save the beleaguered Italian army from defeat. Martin Kitchen's masterful new history of the Axis campaign provides a fundamental reassessment of the key battles of 1941–1943, Rommel’s generalship, and the campaign’s place within the broader strategic context of the war. He shows that the British were initially helpless against the operational brilliance of Rommel’s Panzer divisions. However Rommel's initial successes and refusal to follow orders committed the Axis to a campaign well beyond their means. Without the reinforcements or supplies he needed to deliver a knockout blow, Rommel was forced onto the defensive and Hitler’s Mediterranean strategy began to unravel. The result was the loss of an entire army which together with defeat at Stalingrad signalled a decisive shift in the course of the war.
This book is the first definitive study of the Axis campaign in North Africa from the German perspective. It provides a unique reassessment of Rommel’s leadership and his relationship with Hitler and sets the Allied victory in North Africa within the broader strategic context of the war.
"For too long the decisive campaign in North Africa has been viewed as a military duel between Britain and Germany, personified in the figures of Montgomery and Rommel. Now at last, making full use of Italian sources, Martin Kitchen has given us a balanced, judicious and convincing analysis of the three-handed war in the desert. It will be required reading for every World War II historian" John Gooch, University of Leeds, author of Mussolini and his Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922–1940