EIGHTH ARMY VERSUS ROMMEL: Tactics, Training and Operations in North Africa 1940-1942

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Covers the Desert War from 1940 through the Battle of Alamein in 1942. Examines the undertrained and underfunded pre-war British Army, contrasting its leadership with its opposite numbers in Germany, and demonstrates how and why Eighth Army had difficulties in its first 18 months of fighting the Afrika Korps. Includes 30 b/w photos and 11 b/w maps.

Also examines the battles from the perspective of the commanders, the decisions they made and how cultural influences effected tactics and decisions of the Eighth Army high command. Ultimately, British commanders were as much the product of their military culture and education as Rommel and his commanders were of theirs, but British military culture and education was, for much of this period, markedly less fit for purpose than the German.