An Army at Dawn : The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The...

An Army at Dawn : The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy, ... | Rick Atkinson | Army At Dawn Grows...

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	An Army at Dawn : The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation Trilogy, ... Rick Atkinson, 2003 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 147 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in WW II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa

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 reader 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.

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Incredible research, scholarship and writing

I remember World War II as a kid on the home front. This book is an absolute masterpiece. The Notes alone are worth reading in their entirety. The author cites personal interviews, correspondence, and even Box numbers from little known Army archives. His mastery of "the telling detail" is superb. I was brought to the book recently by watching an interview of Prof. Gordon Wood, whose work I greatly admire, and when asked, "Who is your favorite historian?" answered quickly, "I think Rick Atkinson is the best of the young generation." I couldn't agree more. I am now immersed in his second volume, and don't expect to emerge for weeks. Great work!

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Army At Dawn Grows...

"An Army At Dawn" tells the of the American Army from its first taste of battle in Operation Torch, the Invasion of French North Africa, through the closing of the Tunisian campaign. Author Rick Atkinson does an excellent job of blending the stories of individual soldiers and actions with the big picture of generals and theatre-wide implications. The rivalries between the Americans, French and British are given fair play.

The theme of this book is that the American Army which went ashore in Operation Torch was not fit for heavy combat. From General Eisenhower on down to the privates, it had lessons to learn which were better learned against French and Italians than Germans. Through adversity the army learned to hate and to fight, the generals learned to command and the wheat was separated from the chaff. The Army which was unfit at Dawn was, by Dusk, ready for the battles which lay ahead.

This book gives the reader a good understanding of the North African Theatre of the war. I had read about it previously, but this put it into a new perspective. I often judge a book by whether it whets my appetite for more. This one passes that test. As I was reading this one, I kept wanting to read more about World War II, the North African campaign and North Africa itself. A book that can do that is a worthy read.

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The Forgotten Years of WWII

The North African campaign has always been overshadowed by the European and Pacific theaters - both in print and popular culture. The vast majority of Americans exposure to the battles in Tunisia are probably limited to the early scenes in the movie Patton.

In an Army at Dawn, Rick Atkinson has developed a big-picture (Corps-Division level) view of the strategies, personalities, and movements of a brand new army finding it's way against more seasoned allies (Britain and the free French) and enemies (Germans and Italians) in 1942 and 1943.

Atkinson conveys the enormous efforts and mind-bending blunders that gave the North African battles the same sense of vulnerability and uncertainty of outcome inherent in D-Day, Bulge, and Stalingrad.

As with any of the superior works of history, an Army at Dawn inspires more thought and research into a fascinating topic.

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Easy to understand the Pulitzer...

This book is the first of Atkinson's three book "liberation trilogy" which provides an overview of the campaigns that eventually led to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.

Above all else, this book's historical narrative is so well written that the book simply refuses to let you loose until the job is finished and the book completed. Atkinson's writing is very well executed and unlike many books covering military operations, the story he weaves is consistent, clear and a pleasure to read.

This title covers the North African theater from Operation Torch in 1942 until the last German and Italian troops were evacuated or captured in Tunisia in 1943. The North African campaign is frequently seen as a backwater and doesn't receive the attention of the later Italian, Normandy and Bulge campaigns. However Atkinson's thesis is that every subsequent Allied (or at least the U.S. Army) victory, would not have been possible if the Allies had not attacked North Africa first.

The author shows the US Army's maturation as the crucible of battle transforms the men of the raw American war machine from a gang of inexperienced citizen-soldiers into a highly effective, efficient, and well led army that lead the defeat of Germany's vaunted Wehrmacht in Western Europe.

Covering the North African campaign at the operation and strategic levels, Atkinson's text does a terrific job illustrating the leadership problems of coalition armies. Showing that the Allies did not just "click" because they were united in opposition to Hitler's Axis powers. The text discusses the tensions that existed between the American and British leadership and does a good job of giving General Eisenhouer "his due" as the right man, in the right place, at the right time (albeit one who had to learn his job and role). That Atkinson does so, with such a wealth of intimate detail, is clearly the result of many hours of research into contemporary first-person resources -- as evidenced by the hefty section of notes found at the end of the book.

My only criticism of the book is that the graphics (maps and illustrations) are a little sparse (in particular the maps) and while they do an adequate job of illustrating the text, I wish they were more detailed. Absolutely a recommended read.

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An Army at Dawn, a view for the ages

I highly recommend this book as a great read and an invaluable view of one of the less studied struggles of World War II. If you like the Civil War documentaries of Ken Burns, the works of John Eegan and others of this stripe, you will find equal or greater enjoyment in An Army at Dawn. But the author has more in mind than an entertaining overview or a personalization of battle. He skillfully uses the book's style and content to embody what seem to emerge as his deeper points. Chief among them is the historical and contemporaneous ambivalence toward, and downgrading of, the importance of the North African campaign. This despite what is, at least to Mr. Atkinson, its strategic centrality and its essential role in shaping the American military leadership. Yet again, through his presentation one develops the overall feeling that the story of clashing personalities, political distraction and balky or inadequate subordinates is a reprise of the continuity of the great literature and themes of campaign retrospectives through the ages. The memoirs Ulysses S. Grant came to mind for me. In this respect it does a service that Keegan does not, but perhaps more historical writers like Tuchman manage. This book helps illuminate them, even as it calls you to think about other works as you read on in this one.
Doing an expert job at the now familiar style of mixing overview and detail, facts and anecdotes, the book lays out a full picture of the North African campaign at every level and engages the reader fully, the whole time. The multiplicity of views is the book's weakness as it leaves one wishing for more of the deeper analysis it begs for in many of its key topics, but you have to draw the line somewhere. The author has done a great service and a yeoman job in digging through and offering up so many new primary sources. The book is in fact a trove of topics and arguments calling to be expanded by other authors. The one thing I would have loved to see added is some kind of suggestion list or organization of some of the key sources, to help a reader follow up

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