An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943

An Army at Dawn is a very good history of the western front in North Africa. It is also the story of the coming of age of the American army and its leaders.

The fighting in North Africa was brutal – I had not realized how much so. In this crucible, the American army in the European theater was born. Perhaps the book itself sums things up best in a passage in the epilogue.
At a price of 70,000 casualties “one continent had been redeemed,” in Churchill's phrase. But more than territory could be claimed. The gains were most profound for the Americans, in their first campaign against the Wehrmacht. Four U.S. divisions now had combat experience in five variants of Euro-Mediterranean warfare: expeditionary, amphibious, mountain, desert, and urban. Troops had learned the importance of terrain, of combined arms, of aggressive patrolling, of stealth, of massed armor. They now knew what it was like to be bombed, shelled, and machine-gunned, and to fight on. They provided Eisenhower with a blooded hundred thousand, “high-grade stock from which we must breed with the utmost rapidity,” as one general urged.

There was one passage in the book that fairly jumped out at me.
With sirens screaming from his motorcycle escort, Patton drove up from Fériana—not before taking time to berate a soldier for being ill-shaven and legging-less, although he had just left the line to fetch more ammunition.
The soldier in question could well have been my father, as I have heard that story from him many times. Though he generally had little to say about the war, my father did frequently mention being “chewed out by Patton” for not being in proper uniform as he was returning to the front with ammo and fuel after a period of hard fighting. (My father died last year a week shy of his 90th birthday.)

This is a very good history of war. The numerous detailed maps helped me understand the many battles. And, the section of photographs at the back of the book is a nice bonus. Highly recommended for those with an interest in World War Two.