Alamein [Paperback]

Stephen Bungay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

For Great Britain, there were two pivotal battles in the Second World War. One was the Battle of Britain. The other was El Alamein. There, in October 1942, in a remote part of the desert between Libya and Egypt, the British army won an epic battle of attrition with Rommel’s Afrika Korps. It was a defeat from which Rommel would never recover and a turning point in the war, famously celebrated by Churchill as “the end of the beginning”—the line in the sand that Hitler’s forces were never able to cross. This is a trenchant reexamination of an event that has been cloaked in myth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While providing the necessary information about Rommel and others before getting to the battle itself, Bungay (The Most Dangerous Enemy) provides the most limited coverage of these three books, yet competently contextualizes the battle's elements. One chapter is devoted to the character of the armies involved and the desert battlefield, covering aspects of the desert environment; soldiers' food; the hazards of the battlefield for different branches of service (infantry, artillery and armor); the culture and morale of British, German and Italian soldiers (along with their various motivations to fight); and relations between the ranks. Chapter eight, a succinct overview of the battle, makes an excellent, ready reference, without concentrating on any particular action. The book also includes a few nice asides about the larger war, to give the battle story some context, but it will appeal most to the initiated who want to quickly understand what happened and why in this corner of the war. The book has some careful descriptions of the relations between Allied commanders and analysis of their abilities, but is a bit short on the average soldier's view.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Terse and brilliantly written by a thorough master of his subject' - John Lukacs, Los Angeles Times; 'A brilliant balance between lucid analysis and piquant detail... masterly chapters' - Lawrence James, Daily Mail

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Aurum Press (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854109294
• ISBN-13: 978-1854109293
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,534,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Analysis of the armies at Alamein, June 16, 2004

By 

Michael Licari (Cedar Falls, IA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alamein (Hardcover)

Bungay's book on Alamein is quite different from that of Latimer's. In a sense, they compliment each other very well. While Latimer focuses on the actual combat, giving you a "worm's eye view" in many cases, Bungay choses to focus more on the institutions and leaders that participated.

In this sense, Bungay reviews the armies that fought: Italians, UK/Commonwealth, and German. Logistics, politics, morale, leadership, docrtine, and tactics are all assessed. By doing so, Bungay provides a wealth of information on why the battle developed as it did. The actual battle is dispensed with in a chapter or so, more as a way of demonstrating that the institutional factors predicted the nature of the battle.

This is a good book, particularly if you are interested in how command, doctrine, tactics, and politics influence what occurs on the battlefield. If you are interested only in a straightforward "blow by blow" of the battle, then Latimer's book is recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel view of a famous battle, October 29, 2007

By 

Hector Martin Yanez Banos (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alamein (Paperback)

As with "The Most Dangerous Enemy" Mr. Bungay looks for the reasons why a battle is won or lost in other parts such a logistics, supply, training, chain of command, etcetera. It is a very good change from the typical books where all the success or failure is charged upon the fighting soldiers. This book shows how a battle outcome is very much decided before starting

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An good study on Alamein, June 6, 2006

By 

BernardZ (Melbourne, vic Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alamein (Paperback)

This is a battle that I have read a lot about. It was in WW2 terms, a small battle but in terms of consequences, it had major significance. It was a battle that probably Britain did not even need to fight but for their morale, they had to fight and win.

Having said that for this reason much has been written on this battle but Stephen Bungay has managed to put a new twist on the battle. Whereas most people discuss the actual battle, he tends to discuss the factors that go around the battle as well eg the supply line, generalship and the respective airforce. In a very interesting way.

I find myself disputing one minor point eg German air force kills where he states that on 9/01/42 Marseille shot down 17 British aircraft in one day. In fact on that day, the British lost 11 planes to all causes including AA fire. As pilots often tend to exaggerate their kills, Stephen Bungay should have been more careful in accepts such facts on face value. On the other hand I do agree with his conclusions that as the *star* German pilots tended to consider their purpose to build up scores not the mission and to some extent the German system encouraged this aim, this resulted in the German airforce not doing their mission properly.

If you are looking for a book to start you off on Alamein or looking for a book to give you some new insight into this battle, this book is for you.