El Alamein 1942: The Turning of the Tide (Campaign) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Tackling a well-known subject like the Battle of El Alamein in 1942 and reducing it to a 96-page summary would be a daunting task for most military historians. Unfortunately, the task was clearly beyond author Ken Ford in Osprey Campaign #158, El Alamein 1942, which adds virtually nothing new on the subject and displays a clear lack of any attempt to provide original research or fresh perspectives. Throughout this volume, the author appears content to merely synthesize and summarize material provided by familiar accounts written 20-30 years ago, often incorporating some of the same errors from those older sources that newer research has uncovered.

The author's introductory sections are essentially boilerplate material, particularly in regard to his handling of the reputation of General Montgomery. It is interesting that the author's bibliography does not list Correlli Barnett's The Desert Generals, which while dated, gives a much better insight into the strengths and weaknesses of Montgomery and the other British senior commanders. The section on opposing armies is similar in its skimming the subject, particularly in its superficial coverage of the importance of logistics and air power (note, Martin van Creveld's Supply War is also not in the bibliography, despite his excellent material on the role of logistics in this campaign). Furthermore, given the importance of mines in the campaign, it is odd that the author never discusses the British introduction of flail tanks and new minesweepers, or the German introduction of a new type of mine. Nor does the author make any effort to describe Allied breaching tactics down at the brigade-division level. The author provides order of battles for both sides which appears based upon rather dated and misleading information, as well as omitting any data on air units in the campaign (the strength of opposing air power is never specified). An exhaustive Allied OB for El Alamein done by Dr. Graham Watson a few years ago - and freely available on the internet - reveals significant differences in the assignment of Allied units, particularly armored brigades. The volume includes four 2-D maps (8th Army retreat; First Alamein; Alam Halfa - Rommel's final offensive; Operations Lightfoot and Supercharge; 8th Army drive) and three 3-D BEV maps (Alam El Halfa; the Dog Fight; Operation Supercharge). Given the flat, featureless terrain, the BEVs really don't add anything over a conventional 2-D map, unless they had been "zoomed in" to cover only a very small area.

The volume includes three battle scenes: tanks and anti-tank guns of the Italian Ariete Division attacking south of Ruweisat Ridge; 15th Panzer attacking toward Alam Halfa; the action fought by the 3rd King's Hussars near the Rahman track. It is apparent from these battle scenes that the author has little knowledge of tanks or the specifics of Second World War armor tactics. Two of the battle scenes erroneously depict tanks firing on the move, when in fact the lack of stabilization made this a waste of ammunition. Until the advent of third generation main battle tanks in the 1980s, shoot-on-the-move was not an effective tactic. One battle scene depicts German Pz IV tanks firing both main gun and coax machineguns simultaneously, although usually gunners have a selector switch that only allows them to fire one or the other and these weapons use different sight reticules in any case. As for tactics, all three scenes depict tank charges, which by 1942 both sides had learned were virtually suicidal in the desert (although the British still tried it). One scene depicts Pz IV tanks up front, with Pz IIIs behind, in a loose gaggle; the Germans used wedge formations, with the Pz IIIs up front, and the Pz IVs in back. In the 3rd Hussars scene, three different types of tank are depicted and the text implies that the unit had all three types, but the unit was a Sherman-equipped unit, while the Grant/Lee and Crusader belonged to other battalions in the brigade (thus, they were involved in the attack, but not all in the same battalion).

The lack of original research is apparent throughout this volume. After reading Ken Ford's narrative, I went back and re-read several older accounts by Michael Carver and others and found essentially the same information presented. For example, there is no specific information about either sides' overall casualties at either First El Alamein or Alam Halfa, nor is there any effort to break down the standard Second El Alamein casualty figures by unit. A modest research effort would reveal that the Australian, New Zealand and South Africans have pretty detailed lists of their casualties in the battle. Indeed, the author does not even mention Allied tank losses at El Alamein or that about 30,000 Axis prisoners were taken. Amazingly, this author does not even bother to include that General von Thoma, the Afrika Korps commander, was captured on 4 November.

While the British should be justifiably proud of their victory at El Alamein, this author also tends to avoid some of the criticism that appears in other, better books on the subject. British tank tactics at El Alamein were generally awfully - which is not surprising given that many crews and small unit leaders were only partly trained (most of the trained British tankers having been lost at Gazala). British armor officer and author K. Macksey described the costly British tank attacks at First Alamein as "characterized by supreme gallantry and utter stupidity." Most of all, Montgomery's failure to aggressively pursue and exterminate the remnants of Rommel's forces limited the British victory to an operational, rather than strategic success. Given that the Germans were extremely short of fuel and had only one escape route, Montgomery's failure to coordinate air, land and sea (would have been a good time to land a brigade by sea behind Rommel to cut his escape) forces indicates a lack of both imagination and "killer instinct." Lacking analysis, fresh research or insights, it is hard to view El Alamein 1942 as anything but inadequate.

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the Battle of El Alamein by Ken Ford. The author has a direct yet descriptive writing style highlighting the key features of this battle, from headquarters down to squad level. This sounds like an easy thing to do, but I have found that many military history writers have trouble blending the strategical and tactical elements of operations into a sensible and attractive picture. The photographs and maps in the book are excellent and support the text very well. Howard Gerrard's illustrations lend the emotional edge, visually, that black and white photographs simply cannot do. This is one of my favorite books dealing with the North African campaign published by Osprey.

When I first reviewed this book I gave it 3 stars since I had just recently finished another of Osprey's Campaign Books, the one about Tobruk and by comparison I found this one a tad disappointing. Not that it is bad, far from it - it just didin't live up to the standards of the previous book and I didn't become involved with the story.

Since then I have found that I keep coming back to this book. I play wargames and like to use historical background to my games and there is quite a lot covered in this book. It outlines the three major battles, the first battle of El Alamein, the battle of Alam Halfa and the second battle of El Alamein. In the first the Germans were stopped by Auchinleck, the Battle of Alam Halfa was Rommels last offensive stopped by Montgomery and the last was Montgomery's defeat over the Afrika Korps and their Italian allies. The book covers all of these reasonably well.

What it fails to achive is to make the history living enough, possibly because the scope is so large and it being 3 battles rather than one or simply because of the authors style. The text is dry in the main and the maps are complex and lack interesting detail, especially the birds eye view and one map is even in the wrong chapter.

I would have liked to see more detail on the units involved and possibly some perspective of the fighting man. That being said it still provides a very useful summary of these 3 battles and through time I have become to appriciate this book more and more.