Books on North Africa

Lads, does any of you know of a good job about Armoured Car operations in the Desert, from Ye Olde Rolls Royce to captured 8-wheelers, and points in between?

The scouting/raiding roles sound fascinating.

 

I'm trying to find out about the 15/16th June, 1941,my uncle William Tipple Royal Fusiliers (1st Batt London Regiment) was a casualty I think at El Quneitra, he is buried at Damascus cemetary .If anyone can help to enable me to research further for information on that battle I would be very thankfull.

 

Tobruk by Anthony heckstall smith, it has a few personal accounts, I enjoyed it.

Very good indeed.

I am currently reading the first chapters of "The Desert War", Alan Moorehead, Aurum Press Ltd, London 2009. Just bought at the Imperial War Museum. It seems very good!

 

Lads, does any of you know of a good job about Armoured Car operations in the Desert, from Ye Olde Rolls Royce to captured 8-wheelers, and points in between?

The scouting/raiding roles sound fascinating.


I'm sure that the 11th Hussars war diary is available on-line.

Frank Harrisons "Tobruk; the great siege reassessed" is the best book I've read.

 

I'm sure that the 11th Hussars war diary is available on-line.



They are: click here

 

Very good indeed.

I am currently reading the first chapters of "The Desert War", Alan Moorehead, Aurum Press Ltd, London 2009. Just bought at the Imperial War Museum. It seems very good!

Does anyone know if the abridged edition of this book is very much different than the trilogy?

 

I'm new to the forum and looked around this thread but did not see "American Iliad, The 18th Infantry Regiment in World War II" by Robert W. Baumer and Mark J. Reardon listed. It covers that unit's experience in Sicily and Europe as well as North Africa and is the book that has gotten me started spending time at these forums!

 

Does anyone know if the abridged edition of this book is very much different than the trilogy?


Don't know but.. the trilogy is very good. I've been lucky enough to find a single book with all the three parts of this tale. Very well done.

 

Amazon.com: World War II in Colonial Africa (9780962832451): Richard Osborne, Richard E. Osborne: Books

Although the original start of this thread was centred around North Africa, I thought I'd bring this book up as it covers the rest of the continent, looking at areas rarely covered including Vichy and Belgian colonies. A nice survey on a more obscure topic.

 

I had Forgotten Voices Desert Victory by Julian Thompson delivered today. In keeping with the rest of the books in the series it looks very very good. Italian Campaign next I suspect

 

My father (Mike Sadler) was in the South African Artillery and served in Tobruk when it fell in 1942. He was a POW in Italy and Austria, ending in Stalag 18A&C. After the war he became an educator and a successful author. In 1999 he self-published his memoirs in a book "The War Story of Soldier 124280". He died in 2002 and I have been able to obtain an electronic copy of this book and have re-published this on Amazon.com.
Details can be found here:
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El-Alamein by Bryn Hammond - a must have for the Alamein battles.

 

I've just bought After the Battle's latest book The Desert War: Then and Now), but not knowing much about the campaign I wondered what others think of it?

 

Does this thread deserve to become a database too?

 

Warlord

Could very well be as it covers a lot of different views of that campaign - but for me it still is Barrie Pitt's Trilogy...

Cheers

 

Most of the books listed above are very good particularly the Crucible of War. I have been slowly collecting histories of British Armoured formations many of which cover the desert period in detail. A few that standout to me are:

The Forgotten Regiment -Libya 1941-42 - This deals with the 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars and has a very insightful analysis of Operation Crusader as a whole as well as the parts that the 2RGH took part in.
Jake Wardrops Diary - A pre war tanker in 5 RTR who served throughout the war only to be tragically killed in the closing month of the war.
Leakey's Luck - covers the wartime service of Ray Leakey MC including the siege of Tobruk and the early Desert campaign
A Troopers Desert War - Philip Foster . Covers the desert camapign from the point of view of a Tpr in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
Alamein to Zem Zem - Keith Douglas - A troop leader wit the Sherwood rangers in the western desert battles through to Tunisia
Tanks in the East - Colin Kerr - Australian Divisional Cavalry including the rarely covered Syrian Campaign
A Noble Crusade - The history of the eight Army
Pendulum of War Niall Barr - covers the three Battles of Alamein.

Alam Mooreheads African Trilogy is also a really good read.
Cheers
Al

 

"TUNISIAN TALES: The 1st Parachute Brigade in North Africa 1942-43", from Niall Cherry, deserves a mention.

As far as I know, published on a limited run of 1000 numbered copies, all signed by the author (mine is No. 250 :biggrin: )

 

Ive had that out of my local library, will look to see if its signed and numbered next time i go.

 

if you want to read about the experiences of infantrymen in Tunisia during Dec 1942 to May 1943, I would highly recommend John Horsfall's "The Wild Geese Are Flighting"...

best

 

To the excellent books already mentioned, I would add the following. The first two are must-reads; the others are just for fun.

1. The Trail of the Fox by David Irving (though it's a biography of his whole life, of course the desert war gets a lot of attention.)
2. Rommel's North Africa Campaign by Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani (as you may guess from the name of one of the authors, this book tells a lot more about the Italians than is usually the case with books about North Africa.) Many illustrations and little-known photos
3. The Afrika Korps by Erwan Bergot (a fun read, not deep history, and the cover of my paperback shows Panther- or Tiger II-like tanks!)
4. Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson (from the US/Allied point of view)
5. Rommel's Desert War by Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.
6. Tobruk Commando by Gordon Landsborough (a raid on Tobruk in Sept 1942, perhaps the basis for the novel and movie "Tobruk" released in the 1960's.)