Alamein: Great BattlesEl Alamein was one of the pivotal battles of the Second World War, fought by armies and air forces on the cutting edge of military technology. Yet Alamein has always had a patchy reputation - with many commentators willing to knock its importance. This book explains just why El Alamein is such a controversial battle. Based on an intensive reading of the contemporary sources, in particular the extensive and recently declassified British bugging of Axis prisoners of war, military historian Simon Ball turns Alamein on its head, explaining it as a cultural defeat for Britain. Alamein is a military history of the battle - showing how different it looks stripped of later cultural excrescences. But it also shows how 'Alamein culture' saturated the post-war world, when archival sources mingled with film, novels, magazines, popular histories, and the rest of Alamein's footprint. Whether you are interested in the battle itself or its cultural afterlife, if you have an opinion about Alamein, you'll question it after reading this book. |
Contents
Prisoners | 45 |
Correspondents | 64 |
Generals | 81 |
Soldiers | 108 |
Tacticians | 139 |
Strategists | 162 |
Conclusion | 184 |
Notes | 187 |
Bibliography | 219 |
237 | |
239 | |
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Common terms and phrases
11 November African Trilogy Alamein London Alan Moorehead Alanbrooke Armoured Division August Barr Basil Liddell Hart Battle of Egypt Bayerlein Billany British Intelligence Cabinet Office Cairo Carell Claude Auchinleck Cold in Alex CSDIC Middle East Danchev and Todman David Glantz Davin December Desert Fox Desert Victory Diaries Divisione Eighth Army El Alamein Eric Dorman O'Gowan FDR Library February Field Marshal Film Flynn and Gleave given at RUSI Guingand Hartley Shawcross Hinsley I. S. O. Playfair January John North July June Keith Douglas Kitchen LHCMA Manfred Rommel March McCallum Mediterranean and Middle Mediterranean Area Michael Carver Montgomery of Alamein Montgomery to Brooke Mustardé North African Campaign October Oswald Panzer Pendulum Playfair and Molony Prime Minister Prisoner from Alamein Report CSDIC Middle repr Rolf Hochhuth Rommel's Desert Royal United Service Second World September 1942 Special Report CSDIC Stalin Stalingrad Stumpf Tedder Tobruk United Service Institution York