An Army at Dawn - the War in North Africa,1942-1943 (Rick Atkinson, 2002)

This is the first volume in Rick Atkinson's quite excellent trilogy covering US role in World War II.  For whatever reason, I read it last among the three books (volume two discussed here; volume three discussed here).  Would have been useful to have read the three works in the correct order - mostly to gather the background on key personalities plus understand how some of the initial maneuverings related to later efforts - but each of the three works also stands quite nicely on its own.  All highly recommended.

I had read a bit about the US efforts in North Africa as part of larger histories; also did some reading about the British experience there (for example, this book).  But very much ignorant for the most part.  So this was quite valuable.

A few ideas:

1.  The incredible amount of preparation required for the US military to participate effectively.  The lack of sophistication resulting in severe setbacks.  Reminiscent of WWI.  (And I don't have the slightest criticism of this - seems quite fine that the country didn't maintain a large standing military presence in the run-up to either of the world wars.)

2.  I need to better understand Hitler's thinking in relation to the Vichy regime.

3.  Such an awkward situation with the French military in North Africa - protecting this territory against the Allies was part of the Vichy government's deal with Hitler.  Weird that in the early going the Allies fought battles (sometimes pitched, sometimes desultory) with the French in North Africa!  While trying to work with the "Free French."  Casablanca-style intrigues.

4.  Rommel, Kesselring.  Manpower and materiel shortages plaguing German army (along with Italian ineffectiveness).  German troubles in Stalingrad and Kursk; Italy wavering; Hitler limited in ability to allocate resources to North Africa even while pulling some divisions away from Russia.

5.  The Allied politicians - Roosevelt and Churchill primarily. England pushing to prioritize the Mediterranean operation.  Eisenhower's maturation in an incredibly challenging job.  Titching between British and US military folk at all levels.

6. Difficulties with ambitious amphibious landings - large, but significantly smaller scale than would be undertaken in Italy and Normandy.

7.  Kasserine Pass.

8.  Quite a bit of focus on a division (34th) with heavy representation from Southwest Iowa (including a leader from Red Oak).

9.  The story of Count Stauffenberg's injuries in North Africa at the hands of strafing fighters; he uses his recuperation period to work on the assassination plot involving the briefcase under the conference room table (recounted in the recent Tom Cruise movie (Valkyrie)).

10.  The goums and their penchant for collecting Nazi ears for bounties (fake submissions suspected, however).  I need to re-read Irvin Bormann's diary on this topic.

11.  As in the other two volumes:  plenty of references and connections to wars fought in these areas going back to classical times.  (In this case:  a focus on Carthage.)

12.  Patton was pulled away from the final stages to focus on plans for invading Sicily (leading into volume two).

Borrowed from PJr.