-
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
- The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Series: The Liberation Trilogy, Book 1
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: History, Military
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $46.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Day of Battle
- The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 32 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In An Army at Dawn - winner of the Pulitzer Prize - Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943, attack Italy two months later, and then fight their way, mile by bloody mile, north toward Rome. The Italian campaign's outcome was never certain; in fact, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and their military advisors bitterly debated whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even wise.
-
-
Hard to Listen to, but Very Worthwhile
- By N. Rogers on 08-08-14
By: Rick Atkinson
-
Plan of Attack
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.
-
-
Rorschach Test
- By Michael on 05-03-04
By: Bob Woodward
-
Crusade
- The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout the Gulf War of 1991, unprecedented restrictions on the media’s access to the battlefield kept the true story of that brief, brutal conflict from being told. Now, after two years of intensive research, Rick Atkinson has written what will surely come to be recognized as the definitive chronicle of the war.
-
-
I found the narrator to be good
- By lamia on 09-03-15
By: Rick Atkinson
-
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
-
-
Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
-
The Long Gray Line
- The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Adam Barr, Rick Atkinson
- Length: 28 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A classic of its kind, The Long Gray Line is the 25-year saga of the West Point class of 1966. With a novelist's eye for detail, Rick Atkinson illuminates this powerful story through the lives of three classmates and the women they loved - from the boisterous cadet years, to the fires of Vietnam, to the hard peace and internal struggles that followed the war.
-
-
A splendid historical account of honor, love, sacrifice and tradgety
- By Eric B. Smith on 05-20-21
By: Rick Atkinson
-
The Panzer Killers
- The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge into the Third Reich
- By: Daniel P. Bolger
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two months after D-Day, the Allies found themselves in a stalemate in Normandy, having suffered enormous casualties attempting to push through hedgerow country. Troops were spent, and American tankers, lacking the tactics and leadership to deal with the terrain, were losing their spirit. General George Patton and the other top US commanders needed an officer who knew how to break the impasse and roll over the Germans - they needed one man with the grit and the vision to take the war all the way to the Rhine. Patton and his peers selected Maurice Rose.
-
-
Pronunciation counts
- By Brian Shivers on 08-22-21
By: Daniel P. Bolger
-
The Day of Battle
- The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 32 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In An Army at Dawn - winner of the Pulitzer Prize - Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943, attack Italy two months later, and then fight their way, mile by bloody mile, north toward Rome. The Italian campaign's outcome was never certain; in fact, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and their military advisors bitterly debated whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even wise.
-
-
Hard to Listen to, but Very Worthwhile
- By N. Rogers on 08-08-14
By: Rick Atkinson
-
Plan of Attack
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.
-
-
Rorschach Test
- By Michael on 05-03-04
By: Bob Woodward
-
Crusade
- The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout the Gulf War of 1991, unprecedented restrictions on the media’s access to the battlefield kept the true story of that brief, brutal conflict from being told. Now, after two years of intensive research, Rick Atkinson has written what will surely come to be recognized as the definitive chronicle of the war.
-
-
I found the narrator to be good
- By lamia on 09-03-15
By: Rick Atkinson
-
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
-
-
Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
-
The Long Gray Line
- The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: Adam Barr, Rick Atkinson
- Length: 28 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A classic of its kind, The Long Gray Line is the 25-year saga of the West Point class of 1966. With a novelist's eye for detail, Rick Atkinson illuminates this powerful story through the lives of three classmates and the women they loved - from the boisterous cadet years, to the fires of Vietnam, to the hard peace and internal struggles that followed the war.
-
-
A splendid historical account of honor, love, sacrifice and tradgety
- By Eric B. Smith on 05-20-21
By: Rick Atkinson
-
The Panzer Killers
- The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge into the Third Reich
- By: Daniel P. Bolger
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two months after D-Day, the Allies found themselves in a stalemate in Normandy, having suffered enormous casualties attempting to push through hedgerow country. Troops were spent, and American tankers, lacking the tactics and leadership to deal with the terrain, were losing their spirit. General George Patton and the other top US commanders needed an officer who knew how to break the impasse and roll over the Germans - they needed one man with the grit and the vision to take the war all the way to the Rhine. Patton and his peers selected Maurice Rose.
-
-
Pronunciation counts
- By Brian Shivers on 08-22-21
By: Daniel P. Bolger
-
The Liberator
- One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared - the entire time it took to liberate Europe - no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th "Eager for Duty" Infantry Regiment of the 45th "Thunderbird" Division. Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler.
-
-
Now I Know What a Hero Really Is
- By Steven on 11-27-12
By: Alex Kershaw
-
The Guns of August
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed...and how horrible it became.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-28-08
-
The Second World War
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 39 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, The Second World War. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on World War II.
-
-
It Fills in Gaps I Didn't Know Existed
- By DJM on 07-31-12
By: Antony Beevor
-
World War II at Sea
- A Global History
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina - at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world - and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; and much more.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Patrick on 02-14-19
By: Craig L. Symonds
-
D-Day
- June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen E. Ambrose draws from hundreds of interviews with US Army veterans and the brave Allied soldiers who fought alongside them to create this exceptional account of the day that shaped the twentieth century. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities and triumphs of life are laid bare and courage and heroism come to the fore.
-
-
What an epic story what great men
- By Michael on 02-12-14
-
The Last Battle
- By: Cornelius Ryan
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater. The last offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich, it devastated one of Europe’s historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war’s bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come.
-
-
Masterful Work
- By Shaun on 08-03-12
By: Cornelius Ryan
-
Enemy at the Gates
- The Battle for Stalingrad
- By: William Craig
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On August 5, 1942, giant pillars of dust rose over the Russian steppe, marking the advance of the 6th Army, an elite German combat unit dispatched by Hitler to capture the industrial city of Stalingrad and press on to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The Germans were supremely confident; in three years, they had not suffered a single defeat. The Luftwaffe had already bombed the city into ruins. German soldiers hoped to complete their mission and be home in time for Christmas.
-
-
great, but difficult to follow
- By Ed on 03-19-16
By: William Craig
-
Citizen Soldiers
- The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterful biography of the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, Citizen Soldiers provides a compelling account of the extraordinary stories of ordinary men in their fight for democracy. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there.
-
-
Respect Our Vets But Not Ambrose
- By lmtwashington on 07-27-18
-
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
-
-
One of the great literary achievements of all time
- By Judd Bagley on 01-09-09
By: Shelby Foote
-
Crime and Punishment (Recorded Books Edition)
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is universally regarded as one of literature's finest achievements, as the great Russian novelist explores the inner workings of a troubled intellectual. Raskolnikov, a nihilistic young man in the midst of a spiritual crisis, makes the fateful decision to murder a cruel pawnbroker, justifying his actions by relying on science and reason, and creating his own morality system. Dehumanized yet sympathetic, exhausted yet hopeful, Raskolnikov represents the best and worst elements of modern intellectualism. The aftermath of his crime and Petrovich's murder investigation result in an utterly compelling, truly unforgettable cat-and-mouse game. This stunning dramatization of Dostoevsky's magnum opus brings the slums of St. Petersburg and the demons of Raskolnikov's tortured mind vividly to life.
-
-
Masterful narration of a masterpiece
- By John on 07-30-08
By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others
-
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Using archival records, in this book, David Stahel presents a history of Germany's summer campaign from the perspective of the two largest and most powerful Panzer groups on the Eastern front. Stahel's research provides a fundamental reassessment of Germany's war against the Soviet Union, highlighting the prodigious internal problems of the vital Panzer forces and revealing that their demise in the earliest phase of the war undermined the whole German invasion.
-
-
Best book on Operation Barbarossa so far
- By Amazon Customer on 09-14-21
By: David Stahel
-
Neptune's Inferno
- The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands.
-
-
Desperate battles, well told
- By Robert B on 05-04-12
Publisher's Summary
Pulitzer Prize, History, 2003
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.
Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.
An Army at Dawn is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History.
More from the same
What listeners say about An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ted
- 05-30-16
Fascinating book, great performance
This colorful narrative history, filled with memorable details, entranced me for several weeks on my daily walks home from work, and a lot of the pleasure is due to George Guidall's extremely powerful delivery. It's so effective that I've actually gone and bought a few other books he's done (and he's done quite a lot); his reading of "Winesburg, Ohio," for example, is very skillful. I'm a bit disappointed that Guidall was not assigned the remaining two books in this Rick Atkinson WW2 trilogy; in fact, for some reason, the publishers have used three different readers, which seems rather a shame.
My only criticism of Guidall's delivery is that he indicates he's quoting someone by altering his voice to a sort of emphatic, choleric bark, and it has the effect of making all the men he's quoting sound pretty much the same, like a sort of impatient, peppery martinet, even if that characterization may not always be appropriate. But short of announcing "Quote" and "Close quote" aloud, which seems to be taboo, no one has come up with a perfect solution for indicating, in audiobooks, when words are suddenly being quoted. At least Guidall hasn't gone in for a variety of exaggerated accents, which some readers (frustrated actors?) attempt and which can be quite jarring.
As has often been pointed out in these Audible comments, it's difficult to absorb military history like this solely in audio, due to the many names and foreign place names; and yes, one does greatly miss the maps and photographs of a printed book. Yet I have to say that I own the third volume of the Atkinson trilogy -- "The Guns at Last Light" -- and though I read it with great admiration, I got bogged down halfway through and indeed have not yet finished it. For some of us, it's just easier in terms of time and energy to listen to these books on tape. If I'd tried to read "An Army at Dawn" in print, I'd probably have laid it aside, albeit with the intention of picking it up again sometime in the future.
A final note: A lot of my reading in recent years involves the war, but I knew very little about the North African campaign, the subject of this book. I therefore read a number of the Amazon comments, many of them critical (despite the book's having won the Pulitzer!), many of them by WW2 buffs who sound like they know what they're talking about. One frequent criticism seems to be that Atkinson is too hard on the U.S. military, too disparaging, too prone to dwell on the Army's mistakes. That may very well be true; I don't like writers who snipe at the military (always an easy target when one is comfortably far from the battlefield), yet I have to admit that what sticks in my mind is the appalling number of screw-ups, snafus, and needless deaths in the campaign due to carelessness or bad generalship or lack of communication between U.S. and British troops. (As someone -- Eric Larrabee? -- noted, the green, hastily assembled U.S. troops needed "a place to be lousy in.") Maybe the impression the book leaves is not balanced, but those examples of things going terribly wrong were undeniably eye-openers for me, or at least reminders of how easily, in combat, the lives of brave young men can be sacrificed for things that, in retrospect, look pretty stupid. The book did not turn me into a pacifist, by any means, but I suppose it served as a slight corrective and -- on the continuum that has, say, "Sergeant York" at one end and cynical works like "All Quiet" and "Catch-22" on the other -- it probably moved me one step closer to the latter end. It certainly made me very, very grateful that I've never known war, and grateful to my father, who did.
44 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brandon Tigchelaar
- 12-16-17
Excellent book, but...
It is an object lesson in the limits of audio books. It's difficult to track the action of war without maps to review as it unfolds.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Doc
- 11-28-16
Worth the time
I can manage history fairly well on recorded books. One thing that helps is a good narrator. I found this book by looking for books with George Guidall as narrator and I was pleased. I followed this book with the second undertaking from Mr. Atkinson focused on Italy and Sicily; not a happy outcome. Different narrator maybe or because I had a less understanding about the Italian effort. I'm taking a break and will pick up the third volume sometime early next year. One issue is that I couldn't keep track of the terrain and disposition. I may need to read these books in text format with illustrations that could help in finding my place.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Terri
- 04-30-13
Finally unabridged!
Any additional comments?
I was so happy to see that this book was released in an unabridged version. This is narrative history at its best. The stories of the men and their sacrifice (and in some cases faults) is mesmerizing to read. Cannot wait for the third book of the trilogy to be released.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- W. Max Hollmann
- 01-03-14
An important chapter in WWII well narrated
What comes to mind is that so many blunders of WWI were repeated in WWII. The African campaigns were no exception. American was ill prepared for war and the British seemed not to have learned much from fighting in WWI. But also, as this book unfolds, we learn that only the Germans had learned their lessons and developed new strategies nd tactics, i.e. the blitzkrieg and mechanized warfare. What this theater did was toughen up the Americans, and the allies, physically and mentally, for the long, grueling battles to come.
The author personalizes the battles with snippets from soldiers' diaries (both sides). It proves welcome respite from recalling all the maneuvers and the places they occurred at.
What I wished the book paid more attention to was the installation of Darlan as head of the French forces. There was a mighty bit of political intrigue going on in France, Britain, and American when dealing with what was thought as the least of an unattractive situation. I wished this aspect was explored more in depth.
What the book posits is that this early campaign, won with great difficulty by the allies and lost after horrific fighting by the axis, showed the way to the ultimate destruction of the axis. It gave the allies confidence, sometimes false, and the axis doubts which they were able to overcome to fight on to great tactical victories but ultimate defeat.
I have always doubted the Montgomery's generalship and this book shows how his weaknesses were manifested in his victories but also how they would appear in later battles (his tendency to "tidy" up his lines before making his next assault while the enemy was right in front of him ready to be exploited) to extend the war, e.g. Market Garden.
I highly recommend this book if you wish to examine WWII in a broad context.
As for the narration: it is nothing short of amazing how Guidall can get into the mind of the author and make the story come alive with an inflection here and there. He is a true master of the art o narration.
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jon
- 07-14-13
What war movies didn't tell you
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, because it tells the truth and strips the BS away from the history we were taught. We watched movies like Patton and thought the US was amazing in WW2. The reality is that, like in the build up to Iraq, the Americans were naïve. To me, it was stunning to see how ill prepared and clueless we were going into WW2. Thank god we went to Africa first and got our asses kicked, otherwise we would have gone straight to Normandy, lost, and Germany would control Europe still today.
What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?
I will listen to any thing he narrates. He is the best!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Greg
- 06-02-13
The Africa campaign was Real War!
What did you love best about An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)?
I loved that, for once, The Africa Campaign was shown for what it was: Intense, gruesome struggles, replete with all the terror and drama that illuminates battles like those on the islands of the Pacific in WWII.
I must deduct a star, because this book requires frequent consulting of maps, and I lost a lot by listening, instead of buying hard copy. (To be fair, even hardcopy books often provide sorry maps, tossed in as an afterthought, without serious effort at illustrating towns or topography described in the text.)
I wish Audible, or the publisher, or the author, or somebody would supply a web site that contains maps that one could follow. What a difference that would make!
Any additional comments?
Rick Atkinson's WWII trilogy has been hailed for the superb way it describes WWII. This praise is deserved. But may I also recommend Michael Shaara's four WWII novels, which I consider as enjoyable and informative as Atkinson's, and less map-dependent? Yes, read Atkinson, but also read Shaara.
25 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AMColorado
- 08-27-13
Couldn't Finish It
I really wanted to soak up this book, I'd never studied WWII in Africa in detail and I was itching to learn about it. But listening to a detailed book about it was not the right approach for me. While very well researched and written, it's a constant barrage of names, places, facts, dates, scenarios..... I simply couldn't keep it all straight in my mind. I think that a book like this is much better read in print, where you can look at maps, stop and let something sink in, remember a person, look up a reference point for clarification, etc.
34 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul Warren
- 04-03-15
Great on many levels
So well voiced, so we'll written and such and amazing tale that kudos go to everyone involved in this book and the audio production. Making the war seem at once personal and grand Rick Atkinson has a wealth of detail and the most amazingly beautiful way of writing about what a life changing war this was for all parties involved be they nations or Iowan pharmacy clerks. A must listen for those with even a fleeting desire to know more about the war, but be sure to have a map handy!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gene
- 09-29-13
It doesn't get any better than this.
Any additional comments?
If you like WWII history, you will not regret getting this book. Both the writing and the performance come together to emerse the reader in the entire conflict in North Africa, from the the day to day perspective of soldiers fighting the battles, to the personalities and trials of the high command as the Allies made the first large scale effort to defeat the Axis.
6 people found this helpful