Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940-41

Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa

De: Robert Forczyk

Narrado por: Chris Monteiro

Duración: 13 h y 15 m

Resumen del Editor

Robert Forczyk covers the development of armored warfare in North Africa from the earliest Anglo-Italian engagements in 1940 to the British victory over the German Afrikakorps in Operation Crusader in 1941.

The war in the North African desert was pure mechanized warfare, and in many respects the most technologically advanced theatre of World War II. It was also the only theatre where for three years British and Commonwealth, and later United States, troops were in constant contact with Axis forces.

World War II bestselling author Robert Forczyk explores the first half of the history of the campaign, from the initial Italian offensive and the arrival of Rommel's Panzergruppe Afrika to the British Operation Crusader offensive that led to the relief of Tobruk. He examines the armored forces, equipment, doctrine, training, logistics and operations employed by both Allied and Axis forces throughout the period, focusing especially on the brigade and regimental level of operations.

Desert Armour goes back to the sources to provide a new study of armored warfare in the desert.

©2023 Robert Forczyk (P)2024 Tantor

Detailed information and dispelling myths

Important reevaluation of Rommel and important analysis of armored warfare. Excellent research on armored combat not seen in older works that try and deify Rommel.

Guess he's not on Rommel's Christmas Card List...

Another excellent overview of armor operations, leaving the vast expanse of the Russian front for the sands of North Africa. The work starts a little slow, as we dip back into the inter-war years of the contestants (UK, US and GE, IT) but once we get shipped to the desert things pick up quickly.

No punches are pulled -- the Italian plight, in machines and strategic overreach, is front and center in 1940. The risks and end-result of the "up and back" of the 1941 campaign across Cyrenaica are evaluated under cold analysis. British generalship, outside of Compass, is laid bare. British tankers are given kudos for giving as good as they got.

Those 1 3/4 panzer divisions would have made more strategic sense in the East, and Sonnenblume was simply supposed to block further Allied movements to clear Tripolitania. Rommel wasn't going to languish in a side-show theatre, and ended up losing his table stakes in the process. And, albeit looking ahead, the Germans are going to rebuild that Panzer force twice more in the next volume, only to throw all those additional men and machines into POW camps and hors de combat.

Looking forward to the second volume