Rommel's Greatest Victory: The Desert Fox and the Fall of Tobruk, Spring 1942 Paperback – 17 July 2017

Most books about the war in the desert are in need of serious revision, authors working prior to the last decade seem to be conflicted in having to hide as much as they reveal. With passage of time having meant that a historian no longer has to spare the feelings of any surviving participants this book is one of the few to begin to tell things as they were and it isnt a flattering or pretty picture. For nearly a year numerical and logistical superiority (often of 2 or even 3 to 1) was wasted though poor leadership, poor use of equipment we had and sheer idiocy. Much of the myth of Rommel is a smokescreen to obscure and excuse how poor a lot of the decisions and the running of the war effort was on the british side in the western desert. When you realise the depth of moral panic the army sunk to post Gazala and Fall of Tobruk it does if anything give more credit to Montgomery who managed to find a workable way out of the mess.

This setback for allied forces is not widely mentioned, but here we have a detailed account. Perhaps it was the effectiveness of the Royal Navy in interrupting supplies that denied Rommel further success.

item arrived in excellent condition