The Conquest Of North Africa 1940 To 1943

Clifford was a journalist posted to the Middle East and he covered the entire Brititsh North Africa campaign until the Allied victory in 1943. This is not a recounting of battles by a soldier who participated because Clifford was an observer seeing the conflict from a distance. So the book lacks details of what the conflict was like at the front line. But it tells the story of the strategic flow in a gripping and objectvive manner, including strong comparative analysis of the skills and weaknesses of the various armies and their commanders. The book was written immediately after the victory at Tripoli and the elimination of the Axis threat in North Africa, so it is fresh in terms of its perspective. I enjoyed this immensely. Since WWII was still raging in Europe, the conclusion is stark and not triumphalist, very appropriate.