An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson

Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume 1 of the "Liberation Trilogy." New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

The 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History praised Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume 1 of the "Liberation Trilogy": as a "monumental history of the overshadowed combat in North Africa during World War II that brings soldiers, generals, and bloody battles alive through masterful storytelling." It does that – and more – as it takes readers battle by battle through the U. S. and British campaign in North Africa, from Operation TORCH, the amphibious invasion of French Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942, to the hard-won victory in Tunisia on May 13, 1943, in a way that appeals to novices, pleases history buffs, and satisfies serious historians.

Atkinson argues that the North African campaign was a "pivot point in American history, the place where the United States began to act like a great power – militarily, diplomatically, strategically, and tactically" (3). More importantly, he believes that World War II was the "greatest story of the twentieth century, like all great stories, it was bottomless, [and that] no comprehensive understanding of the victory of May 1945 is possible without understanding the earlier campaigns in Africa and Italy" (655). He supports this argument well in over 500 pages of material.

The prologue provides excellent background information leading up to the launch of the North African campaign, describing in juicy detail the Allied debate between a campaign in North Africa and a cross-channel invasion, presenting the idea that fighting in North Africa was really fighting for British imperial interests instead of get...

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... serious/comic, stead-fastness/panic. He shows how the native people sometimes fled in panic, sometimes calmly continued with business as usual amidst full-blown battle, and occasionally looted the dead – and the living, all the while remembering that their ancient land had seen many battles and occupations; this was just another. He shows us the evolution and maturation of the American Army, with Captain Bruce Pirnie on the morning of February 14, 1943 during the Battle of Sidi bou Zid saying, "We were scared and green" (340) and then with the victory on May 13 of that same year.

Atkinson's passion is evident on every page. By the of the book, even the most diehard believer that North Africa was just a sideshow will see the logic in Atkinson's argument of the importance of the North African campaign as a critical first-step on the way to ending World War II.