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The Crucible of War

Volume 1 - WAvell's Command

 barrie pitt

Throughout the first half of the Second World War, control of the inhospitable North African desert was strategically vital for the Allies. In late 1940, after the fall of France and with Britain fighting for its very survival, it was only in this theatre that the war could be taken to the Axis. The British C-in-C, Wavell, and his commander, O'Connor, decided that, despite their limited resources, attack was the best form of defence against a large Italian army advancing steadily through Libya towards the Egyptian border. In a brilliant campaign, O'Connor routed Graziani's forces, took thousands of prisoners and pushed back the Italians hundreds of miles. It was an astonishing victory, Britain's first of the war on land, yet it was soon overtaken by disaster when the German general Rommel and his Afrika Korps entered the conflict in early 1941 .

Wavell's Command is the first of Barrie Pitt's definitive three-volume history of the Desert War. The second and third volumes, Auchinleck's Command and Montgomery and Alamein, are also published by Cassell.