By Rick Atkinson
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A ideal book... The emphasis all through is at the human drama of guys at war."—The Washington submit e-book World
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the 3rd Reich is an epic tale of braveness and calamity, of miscalculation and enduring triumph. during this first quantity of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson indicates why no smooth reader can comprehend the last word victory of the Allied powers with no grab of the nice drama that opened up in North Africa in 1942 and 1943.
Opening with the bold amphibious invasion in November 1942, An military at Dawn follows the yank and British armies as they try the French in Morocco and Algiers, after which tackle the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. conflict via conflict, an green and occasionally poorly led military steadily turns into an excellent battling force. At the center of the story are the extreme yet unsuitable commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.
Brilliantly researched, wealthy with new fabric and brilliant insights, Atkinson's vivid narrative tells the deeply human tale of a enormous conflict for the way forward for civilization.
Read or Download An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1) PDF
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Additional resources for An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1)
Example text
The passive shelters – barracks, observation posts and combat shelters – were also dispersed to make them more difficult to strike, and to fulfil their functions as troop shelters and combat support for the armoured batteries and infantry works. Command and control was assured by a system of observation and redundant communications. Observatories were placed on the high points of the fort in armoured cupolas equipped with the latest optical equipment – binoculars, periscopes and telemetry scopes.
Existing fortifications could no longer give the batteries sufficient overhead protection to permit them to survive against artillery combat with mobile field artillery. Major Schumann, in his treatise Die Bedeutung drehbarer Geschützpanzer “Panzerlaffeten”, written at the Krupp proving grounds at Magdeburg in 1884, proposed the use of armoured batteries with steel turrets to protect the guns and crew. A radical reform of permanent fortifications was needed. Schumann argued that the way to obtain the desired results was the employment of guns in rotating armoured turrets in place of fixed guns behind ramparts.
Troops manned the picket shelters, blockhouses and counterscarp casemates at all times. While they didn’t stand all day in front of an embrasure with rifle at the ready, since there would be ample time to move to that position in case of alarm, they stayed in the vicinity of their post, ready to respond to any warning. The daily routine was tedious, mostly consisting of sitting and waiting. If the troops were lucky, the commander would give them practice drills and alerts, and based on the written record, this was done quite often in the Imperial Army.
