Customer Reviews

Beda Fomm: The Classic Victory (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century. Battle book)

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Beda Fomm refers to the final battle of the British 1940-41 Operation Compass carried out by The Western Desert Force later re-named XIII Corps commanded by Lt.Gen Richard O'Connor. It was an operation that constituted an armoured advance of over 500 miles in seven weeks against an opponent - the Italian Army - which outnumbered the WDF by over 10:1! The furthest and fastest in History up to that time! At the end of the drive, the British had captured 130,000 Italians and all the major ports of Libya/Cyrenaica including Tobruk. It halted only at the Tripolitanian Border in February 1941. This is one of Ken Macksey's early efforts and in my opinion one of his best. The background, military and political to the Operation, as well as the key personalities of both sides are well covered. One grasps also how for once Hitler's intentions were on the right track. Since, with Churchill esconced as the British Leader, the "soft underbelly of Europe" came under threat. Nevertheless what is clear is the golden opportunity offered by Operation Compass was actually thrown away by Churchill by bleeding off forces into the concurrent Greek campaign, then in the process of being lost by the Allies. Also the failure of both Wavell the British Middle East C-in-C and his subordinates to follow up Compass in a timely manner as to forstall Churchill's depredations. Valuable lessons to be learned from an early unpublicised period of the Second World War. Highly recommended. Used copies seem readily available: get one!