The Crucible of War: Auchinleck's Command: The Definitive History of the Desert War - Volume 2

In the second volume, Churchill replaces Sir Claude Auchinleck as commander-in-chief with Field Marshal Harold Alexander, and places Bernard Montgomery over the Eighth Army. Prior to the changes of command, Auchinleck stopped Rommel's Afrika Korps for the first time at the first battle of Alamein in July, 1942. Still, the Axis forces remained dangerous. The pair's new commands coincided with the arrival of matériel sufficient to give the Allies overwhelming superiority in the field. Montgomery duly planned for a second battle at Alamein six months after the first. The eventual encounter gained a decisive second desert victory, the first since O'Connor's against the Italians nearly two years before. The victory signaled the beginning of the end of the Axis in North Africa. 6 1/8 X 9 1/8. 26 B&W Illustrations

Barrie Pitt saw active service in both Europe and the Middle East. He edited the partwork History of the Second World War and was Editor-in-Chief of Ballantine's Iluustrated History of World War II. Barrie Pitt now lives in Taunton in Somerset.