With Rommel in the Desert (ePub)
Tripoli to El Alamein
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Series: Images of War
File Size: 64.6 MB (.epub)
Pages: 216
Illustrations: 250
ISBN: 9781473878778
Published: 8th May 2017
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With Rommel in the Desert Paperback Add to Basket | £14.99 |
Prior to the outbreak of war in September 1939, the German Army had focused exclusively on the operational, organisational and training preparations needed to wage war in continental Europe. The threat of an Italian collapse in North Africa in early 1941, however, prompted Hitler to reinforce his ally by sending an armoured blocking force to Libya. Not content to merely thwart the British from capturing Tripoli, Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel harried his inexperienced expeditionary force eastward towards the Nile Delta.
This book is a pictorial narrative of the unfolding conflict from the arrival of the Deutsches Afrikakorps until Rommel's departure from the battlefield in March 1943. We view the desert war, with its shifting fortunes and unique challenges, primarily through the lens of ordinary combatants. This is their personal record of serving with Rommel in the desert.
Mitchelhill-Green’s companion volume, With Rommel in North Africa: Tripoli to Alamein, focuses less on the field marshal himself and more on the troops’ experience of daily life campaigning in the Western Desert, but the combination of photographs and narrative enables a similar level of everyday empathy with the subject. Along the way, both works offer ample close-ups of the uniforms and equipment used by both the German and Italian armies in North Africa, making these books valuable references for miniaturists, as well. Their only shortfall in that regard is that there are no color illustrations to help hobbyists with color schemes.
Schopenhauer's Workshop
Read the review online here.
Mitchhill-Green addition to the Images of War desert selections is a superb read, it is well written and has a brilliant combination of text and photo material. It has extremely good coverage of not only the various types of hardware but superb fighting men in action and between combat. The Fallen Comrades section is very well done and the book maintains a high level of quality photo content throughout.
Richard P. Wade, MA Military Historian
For those who have read everything existing on the desert war, this text still has enough to engage even the most knowledgeable expert. For those new to the theatre it is equally suitable as an introductory book to exploring the North African campaign. It provides a good overview of the main battle period, well supported with the photo expose of tanks, artillery and firing positons. A difficult region to photograph the author has selected some of the finest examples as per clarity which makes it difficult to put down. Its captions are well thought out and maintain an outstanding flow from start to finish.
I would highly recommend With Rommel in the Desert to those looking for equipment examples as well as the tactical and strategic students of warfare. Mitchelhill-Green provides a book with something that will grab most enthusiasts and keep them on point throughout the read. It is another very good addition to the Desert Campaign segment by Pen and Sword in its cutting edge line of Second World War histories and a fine addition to any library.
As featured by Mail Online - On the frontline with Nazi troops in North Africa: Unseen images show Rommel's soldiers perched on a gun turret, climbing palm trees and riding camels. Click here to read the piece.
The Mail Online 1/8/17
This is a book to browse and examine rather than ‘read’ and is also useful as a reference.
Wargames Illustrated (Facebook) - review by Dom Sore
This addition to the very popular Images of War series is another well-researched and well-presented book and very good value. – Rommel was perhaps the most effective German General and certainly the most respected by the British – Highly Recommended.
Firetrench
Read the complete review here.
This new addition to the Images of War series from Pen and Sword is one I particularly like. The author has put together a well chosen set of archive photos which provide an excellent reference for what it meant for the soldiers in the Afrika Korps to live and to fight a war in the harsh environment of the North African desert.
Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland
Read the complete review here.
About David Mitchelhill-Green
David Mitchelhill-Green is the author of Rommel in North Africa, With Rommel in the Desert, Air War Over North Africa, Fighting in Ukraine, Rommel’s Ghost Division and Tobruk 1942. Having travelled the globe in search of lost stories from the Second World War, many of his photographic investigations have featured in the British magazine After the Battle. Several years spent in Japan led to an interest in the country’s feudal history and the co-authoring of Castles of the Samurai and Samurai Castles. David lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife Jennifer and two children.