In this compelling account of the decisive World War II battle of El Alamein, Jon Latimer brings to life the harsh desert conflict in North Africa. In October 1942, after a two-year seesaw campaign across the wasteland of western Egypt and eastern Libya, the British Eighth Army not only achieved a significant military victory over the combined German-Italian Panzer Army but also provided an enormous psychological boost for the Allies.  This is the story of two of the most intriguing commanders of the war. Latimer offers remarkably balanced portraits of Bernard Law Montgomery, whose real achievement was overshadowed by his prickly ego, and Erwin Rommel, whose tactical brilliance could not overcome his disdain for the administrative side of war. Alamein, Latimer notes, was a victory for modern armaments, with concentrated artillery used on a scale not seen since 1918. Equally important were the critical contributions of naval and air forces in cutting off the German supply lines and supporting the ground troops, roles largely overlooked in standard accounts.  But Alamein is at heart the story of the infantry soldiers who fought in a scorched wilderness. Often using their own words, Latimer vividly describes the experiences of the gunners, sappers, cavalrymen, and airmen--Britons, Canadians, Australians, Indians, Germans, Italians, and others--who struggled in the heat, sand, and dust of this brutal environment.  With their success at El Alamein, the British forces would drive Rommel's army into Tunisia--and ultimate destruction in the North African Campaign of 1943.

Alamein

History

Jon Latimer

Europe

John Murray

The Battle of Alamein in 1942 was of enormous political and military significance. It brought a sense of victory to Britain grown weary from defeat. And it was a decisive victory. It ended forever the see-saw desert campaign between the Eighth Army and the German-Italian Panzer Army, driving the latter across Egypt, Libya and into Tunisia. Then it was destroyed by the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1943, which in turn led to the invasion of Europe. Alamein was the high-water mark of Rommel's career, and made Monty a household name worldwide. It also changed the way the British Army fought, using concentrated artillery on a scale not seen since 1918 to break through Axis defences built in depth. It was, however, far more than a land battle. Sea power was vital to its success, providing the British with the means to fight while denying it to the Axis. Crucial also were the contributions of the Middle East Air Forces largely overlooked in previous accounts.But fundamentally it was a soldiers' battle in which the infantry, gunners, sappers, tank crews, airmen and their supporting arms fought it out at close quarters amid a welter of confusion - heat, sand, smoke, noise, dust flies and blood. ;As well as providing an overview of the battle in its strategic context, Jon Latimer draws on the experience of the men who fought: British; Australians; New Zealanders; South Africans; East Africans; Indians; Greeks; French; Poles; Canadians; Americans; Italians; Slovenians; Austrians; and Germans. Through them the sights, sounds, smell and taste of the desert come alive, we share their songs and their moments of humour, their fear and their pain.

World

Latimer draws on examples from land, sea and air; he shows how simple some tricks have been, but also how technology has increased the range of what is possible, using for instance bogus radio traffic, virtual images, even smell. There is something particularly satisfying about not only beating an opponent but doing so through guile.

Deception in War

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

Through festering jungle and across burning plains to high mountains and lazy rivers, the Burma campaign of the Second World War involved the longest retreat in British history, and the longest advance; long-range penetration miles behind enemy lines, vicious hand-to-hand fighting, and the horrors of forced labour. Yet this strange war remains utterly fascinating with singular characters like Slim, Mountbatten, Stilwell and Wingate, while dominated by ordinary soldiers that it 'gathered to itself like a whirlpool, men from the ends of the earth': from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West, East and South Africa, but overwhelmingly, from India. Dogras, Sikhs, Punjabis, Kumaonis, Madrassis and Nepalese, representing every race and caste on the subcontinent, were all far from home, all fighting for survival against a ruthless enemy prepared to die for his emperor, while the Burmese fought for their independence. Jon Latimer draws these disparate strands together in a gripping narrative, to describe the operations and the politics that shaped them, while illustrating the experiences of thousands of ordinary people whose lives were caught up and transformed by this south-east Asian maelstrom, many of whom feel that like Fourteenth Army they were forgotten. This book ensures that none of them are.

Burma : The Forgotten War

Military

January 16, 1991. Operation Desert Storm's coalition forces are arrayed along the Saudi border with Kuwait, on the other side of which lurks the bulk of Saddam Hussein's army. While the battle for air supremacy is being waged in the skies, the coalition forces pull off a stunning, and ultimately decisive, deception. Later dubbed the "Hail Mary Pass," it consists of the abrupt relocation of the coalition ground forces hundreds of miles to the West. Meanwhile, as inflatable decoys, deceptive radio transmissions, and psyops leaflets all lead them to believe, the Iraqis are expecting an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf, hundreds of miles from where it is actually occurring. The world's fourth largest army is preparing to engage a horde of phantoms. The coalition forces are able to march deep into Iraq with little opposition. Within one hundred days, Kuwait City is liberated and a decisive victory by the coalition forces is won.\nDeception on the battlefield is surely as old as warfare itself. The examples stretch from the very beginnings of recorded military history—Pharaoh Ramses II's campaign against the Hittites in 1294 B.C.—to modern times, when technology has placed a stunning array of devices into the arsenals of military commanders. Military historians often underestimate the importance of deception in warfare. This book is the first to fully describe its value. Jon Latimer shows how simple some tricks have been, but also how technology has increased the range and subtlety of what is possible—bogus radio traffic, virtual images, even false smells. He draws examples from land, sea, and air to show how great commanders have always had, as WinstonChurchill put it, that indispensable "element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten." 
Author Biography: Jon Latimer served for sixteen years as an officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, as Platoon Commander, Assault Troop Leader and Battalion Intelligence Officer. He has published widely in military journals, and is also the author of Operation Compass 1940 and, with Jim Laurier, of CAM080 Tobruk 1941.

Deception in War: the Art of the Bluff, the Value of Deceit, and the Most Thrilling Episodes of Cunn

Overlook

Wielkie bitwy II wojny swiatowej. Wojna na pustyni 1940. Operacja "Compass" + DVD (polish)

Osprey Publishing Ltd.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jon Latimer. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jon Latimer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jon Latimer. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Alamein

Alamein

Deception in War

Burma : The Forgotten War

Deception in War: the Art of the Bluff, the Value of Deceit, and the Most Thrilling Episodes of Cunn

Wielkie bitwy II wojny swiatowej. Wojna na pustyni 1940. Operacja "Compass" + DVD (polish)