Friday, August 08, 2014

Book review - "Alamein: War without Hate" by John Bierman & Colin Smith

Strong overview of the Desert Campaign, which pays most attention (fairly enough) to the big clash at El Alamein. There are a number of neat vignettes - I particularly enjoyed (if that's the right word) stories of British troops dolling out Benzedrine tablets to soldiers, some of whom went ga ga and shot their own men. The book could have done with more of these.

Aussies get a decent depiction - Morshead, the Rats of Tobruk - as to Kiwis (the cautious General Freyberg). The Afrika Korps receive attention too. It's well done but it is a bit overly familiar (not the fault of the writers: there's just been so much done on this theatre, which the British love writing books about because they love Rommel).

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