The Mediterranean and Middle East

This, the fourth in the eight volumes of the 18-volume official British History of the Second World War describing the war in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres, narrates the defeat of the Axis forces in North Africa in 1942-43. The survival of Malta against determined Axis assaults enabled the Allies to cripple supplies to Rommel's Afrika Korps, while building up their own land, air and sea forces. The entry of America to the war in December 1941 had allowed the allies to co-ordinate a grand strategy for the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatre. In October 1942, after careful preparation and a massive artillery bombardment, General Montgomery launched the Eighth Army against the Afrika Korps in the Battle of El Alamein, while in November, 'Operation Torch' the Anglo-American amphibious landings in French -ruled North Africa, scored an almost bloodless success and proved a dry run for D-Day in 1944. Squeezed between the Allied nutcrackers to the west and east, the Germans offered stubborn resistance in the Tunisia campaign of 1943, at the battles of Kasserine Pass and the Mareth Line, but after suffering severe casualties, the Allies broke through and the Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in May 1943. The text is supported by 12 appendices, 40 maps and diagrams and 44 photographs.