Eighth Army: the Triumphant Desert Army That Held the Axis at Bay from North Africa to the Alps, 1939-45

Rating:
Summary: a memorial
Review: I am not sure if the previous reviewer and I have read the same book. There is no indication at all in this book that the Eighth army was invincible, quite the reverse, and its defeats are covered as well as its undoubted triumphs. Nor is there any indication of superior British equipment: the failures of British kit, from tanks to "flimsy" petrol cans are well documented, as is the wonderful improvement in reliability and firepower supplied by US lend lease tanks and equipment. But the book is a memorial and a tribute to the men who served in the Eighth Army. If there was anything "invincible" about it, it was probably the morale of the soldiers. The aim, I feel, of the book, boils down to this: It is an explanation of why, Winston Churchill was moved to say that it would be enough, after the war, for a man simply to say that he "had served with the Desert Army". The aim of the book is never to downplay the role or contribution of others, but to provide a fitting memorial to the men of the Eighth Army. Certainly I am not aware that the book provides any startling new revelations into the conduct of the war in North Africa, Sicily or Italy, but it is a solid introduction to the topic. I recommend it, because the scholarship and writing style are good enough to make me want to read more books by this author and enough, and adequate maps (always a problem in military history) are provided. It is not brilliant, it is probably a solid 3 star performer, but I have given it 4 at the moment, because the current one star rating is so woefully inaccurate that I cannot let it stand.

Rating:
Summary: Keep it at arm's length
Review: This is a book that celebrates the supposedly invincible Eight Army in World War 2. From reading it, you may have thought that the Brits fought and won all their campaigns single handed, when the fact is that without American supplies, arms, air power, naval power and GIs, the mighty Eight Army would have been routed many times over by smaller, better led yet poorly equipped German forces.