The End of the Beginning [Paperback]

Tim Clayton (Author), Phil Craig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2007

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

-- Winston Churchill, November 10, 1942

Spring 1942. Throughout the world, the Allies retreat before the inexorable march of Fascism: Singapore falls to Japan; the Wehrmacht lays siege to Leningrad, captures the Crimea, and advances on Stalingrad; Greece and Yugoslavia fall to the Nazis; the American Pacific Fleet lies in ruins; and in Libya, Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps faces off against the British Eighth Army. Over the next twenty weeks, a series of battles fought in North Africa's Western Desert will become the pivot point of the Second World War.

In part, The End of the Beginning is the story of those battles: Rommel's surprise attack on the Gazala Line in May 1942, the fighting retreat of the British Eighth Army under General Sir Claude Auchinleck, and the fall of Tobruk after a siege lasting 240 days; the blockade of Malta and the Pedestal convoy that finally relieved the island; Auchinleck's brilliant last-ditch battle to hold Rommel at El Alamein, Rommel's final attacks at Alam Halfa Ridge, and then Montgomery's destruction of the Afrika Korps at the second battle of El Alamein in November.

But, like the best works of popular history, The End of the Beginning is more than a simple chronicle of battles won and lost, of the decisions of statesmen and generals. Its stories are told from the perspectives of the men and women who spent these pivotal months on the very tip of the Allied spear, with raw, personal experience documented on virtually every page: Peter Vaux, the intelligence officer of the British 7th Armoured Division, plotting the defeat of the Afrika Korps in a desert wadi named El Alamein; American merchant marine cadet Lonnie Dales sailing in the Pedestal convoy in an attempt to relieve Malta and, after his ship is sunk, volunteering to man the antiaircraft gun on the crippled oil tanker Ohio; Flight Lieutenant Ken Lee flying ground support missions by day, exploring the fleshpots of Alexandria by night; Alex Szima from Dayton, Ohio, one of Darby's original Rangers, joining the Canadians in the failed raid on Dieppe, and probably becoming the first American to kill a German during the war; Mimi Cortis, a Maltese nurse in one of the island's supply-starved hospitals. These stories give an unmatched depth to the consequences of the disputes between Churchill and his senior commanders; the shuttle diplomacy between London, Washington, and Moscow by FDR confidant Harry Hopkins; the deep conflicts between Montgomery and his predecessors; and the extraordinary American intelligence blunder that betrayed the Eighth Army's plans to Rommel.

Showcasing the latest scholarship and the authors' own original research, packed with edge-of-the-seat first-person experiences, and intercut with the pace of popular fiction, The End of the Beginning is an extraordinary assessment of one of the most important campaigns of the Second World War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After collaborating on the documentary film series Finest Hour and its companion book, Clayton and Craig return with this chronicle of the Allies' travails during the dark year of 1942. They begin with an introduction that describes major wartime figures, as well as a number of veterans who appear throughout the book, including British tank officer Peter Vaux. Events at the highest command levels, involving Churchill, Roosevelt and Allied generals, leaven tales of battle action that feature the veterans' accounts. Action at Knightsbridge Box (an important British position) and Bir Hakim (held by the Free French), for example, cuts to a nurse's experiences on the island of Malta, under aerial siege by the Axis, and those of an RAF pilot in action in the Middle East. A U.S. Ranger trains in England and later sees action at the Dieppe landing (a rehearsal for D-Day two years later), while the famed British convoy to Malta, Operation Pedestal, is featured. Although the emphasis is on the fighting in North Africa, largely from an Allied perspective, the authors do a nice job with German intercepts of messages of an American military attach‚ in Cairo that provided valuable intelligence to the Axis, an incident that often goes unremarked upon. Churchill's meeting with Stalin in Moscow is followed by the British victory over the German Afrika Korps at El Alamein, with continuing emphasis on individual experiences. An epilogue covers the later careers of the individuals featured throughout the book, important political figures and generals as well as individual soldiers and airmen. In all, this account does a good job with a lesser-known period of the war, but it assumes the reader's interest, rather than creating it.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The title of this book is taken from a speech by Churchill after the British finally defeated Rommel's Afrika Corps in October and November 1942, at El Alamein, the decisive battle in the struggle for North Africa. Up to that point, Britain had endured setback after setback. By the middle of 1942, all of the Mediterranean's northern shore and central bastions, save for Gibraltar and the beleaguered island of Malta, were lost. It seemed that the only place where Allied forces could "get at" the enemy was in North Africa; even there, Rommel, the "Desert Fox," had repeatedly frustrated British forces. Clayton and Craig are both authors and producers of television documentaries. They have extensively utilized first-person accounts of participants and weaved them together with original research into facets of the campaigns often neglected by scholars. The result is an absorbing chronicle of warfare that conveys the constant sense of tension and the occasional sense of exhilaration experienced by men in combat. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (July 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743223276
• ISBN-13: 978-0743223270
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,968,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 1942: The Turning Point of the War, April 23, 2003

By 

David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the Beginning : From the Siege of Malta to the Allied Victory at El Alamein (Hardcover)

The End of the Beginning covers World War II on the western European front from May 25 to November 10, 1942. It's written in almost novel form as it follows certain real people in the various theaters of the war, so it's not as dry as some history books can be. However, the effect of the writing is diluted by some of the varying topics the book covers, lessening the impact and bringing down the quality of the book.

Clayton and Craig have an easy-going style that draws the reader into it. The "characters" in the book come from all walks of life, from the British aristocracy to a nurse on the island of Malta to Winston Churchill himself. The authors spent a lot of time interviewing many of their subjects, while other parts of the narrative are taken from war diaries and previous interviews that had been conducted. They weave all of this into a wonderful tapestry that's sure to garner interest.

The chapters are set up to cover a certain number of days each. Some are only one day, while others span a week or two. Inside each chapter, many different events are covered during 1942. The narrative jumps back and forth among these events, allowing us to get to know the people involved, the horrors that they faced and the bravery that they exhibited. Sometimes, such as in the case of Mimi Cortis, a nurse on Malta, it was the bravery of just surviving day to day. All of the stories are interesting and make you want to read more about them.

A number of the chapters have a theme that uses two events that contrast with each other to make a point. In one chapter, the authors contrast a bombing mission over Germany that results in the pilot being captured and interred in a POW camp with a Jewish woman who is arrested on the island of Guernsey and her trip on train after train until she finally arrives at Auschwitz. This chapter also puts together the deportation of the Jews from occupied territories, and the treatment that they had to endure, with the British bombing of civilians in Germany. It's a very powerful chapter as we see man's inhumanity toward man demonstrated. Yet we also see the apparent necessity of one of these against the barbarity of the other.

Another strong contrast is the chapters talking about Churchill's visit to Stalin to try and convince him that a second front (namely, an invasion of France) was not possible in 1942. Stalin questioned the bravery of British troops because of this and they had many heated discussions. Also in this chapter, though, is the story of a convoy that attempts to get supplies to Malta. The convoy is bombed, stalked by U-Boats, and attacked by some surface ships. Many cargo ships go down, but one of them refuses to sink. The crew, along with rescued crewmembers from other ships, desperately work to keep the ship afloat and get it to Malta. They finally succeed. The scene in this chapter constantly switches back and forth between these two events, effectively putting the lie to Stalin's statements about British bravery.

There are some real problems with this book that bring it down considerably, though. The first is the scattered nature of the narrative. While all of the events and characters are interesting to read about, the scattershot approach makes for a very disjointed read. The scene jumps from Egypt to Malta to England to Germany, back to England and then back to the Middle East. Just as you are getting used to one event, it's on to something else. While I never lost interest in the book, it did become a bit annoying.

The second problem is related to this in a way. Some events are given short shrift because of this approach. The battles in Egypt and Libya are given lots of time. Malta has its fair share, too. Life around a bomber base is detailed pretty nicely as well. But other areas, while mentioned, are neglected to the point that I have to conclude the only reason they were included was for completeness' sake. The raid on Dieppe, for example, is over in a few pages. The main character that the authors use to discuss Dieppe is an American Ranger who was in the more successful aspect of this operation. Most of the mistakes and catastrophic results of the main raid are told in hindsight and don't get that many pages. Of 4963 Canadians who landed on the beaches, 3369 were killed, captured, or wounded. But it only gets a few pages.

The other aspect that gets so little discussion that it's a wonder it was included is the political wrangling between the Americans and British. Clayton and Craig talk about how the Lend Lease, where military equipment was "lent" to the British on the promise that they would pay when they were able to, was partially designed to keep Britain economically dependent on the United States so that the British Empire would fall and Britain would lose its world dominance after the war. This is a potentially explosive issue, screaming for analysis. But it gets only a few pages and is never discussed in great detail.

One would not be wrong to think this book is mostly about the battles in the Middle East. While other subjects are covered, that gets the majority of the spotlight. Sometimes I wished that they had just stayed there and covered that in even more detail and left the other insights to other books. As good as this book is, it would have been so much better with a little bit of concentration. As it is, I can't give it four stars. But I would give it 3.75 if I could.

David Roy

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Follow Up to 'Finest Hour', March 4, 2003

By 

Aussie Reader ""Rick"" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the Beginning : From the Siege of Malta to the Allied Victory at El Alamein (Hardcover)

Once again the talented combination of Tim Clayton and Phil Craig have produced a new and exciting account of a well know period of the Second World War. Their newest book, apparently the second in a trilogy designed to mark the 60th anniversaries of Britain's three most important moments during WW2, covers the year 1942, the turning point in the Allied camp.

Following on from their excellent book 'Finest Hour', we again meet up with some familiar faces from that story. Peter Vaux, now fighting with the famed Desert Rats, Edith Heap working with R.A.F. bomber crews in England and Ken Lee still flying fighters in the R.A.F. but now over the desert. The authors have used the same winning formula with their last book and we follow these people and their stories along with a few others through the events of 1942.

We experience the fighting in the desert against Rommel and his men. We read how the British tanks are out classed by the German panzers and how the R.A.F. try to protect the Allies and harry the advancing German and Italian units as they advance towards Alexandria. We read about the desperate battles on the sea and in the sky to get convoys into Malta. We hear the stories of the inhabitants of that bombed out Island, hanging on desperately against the might of the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica during daily bombing missions and with the fear of invasion hanging over their heads.

The story takes us back to Europe and we learn of the fate of many of the R.A.F. bomber crews fighting their own lonely war over the dark skies of occupied Europe. We read about the terrible tragedy at Dieppe and the political infighting amongst the leaders of the allied nations. Most of the story has been told before, however there are some elements that most readers will find new and interesting. I was not aware of the American intelligence blunder that gave away many Allied secrets to the Germans nor was I aware of the true mastermind behind the defence at El Alamein.

These things and more are told here for the first time and we read the stories of those who experienced this frightening but also uplifting period with a mixture of awe and amazement. This is a good book and in just over 400 pages we get a good feel for what it was like for many participants to be involved in this most important period in British history. One story that I won't forget and found hard to believe was the account of a young Jewish woman that was deported to Auschwitz from Guernsey. You read this story and you ask yourself 'how could this happened?'

I am sure that most people who enjoy popular history will get a buzz out of this book. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning" - Winston Churchill, 10th November, 1942

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Nazi Tide Begins To Ebb, July 15, 2003

By 

L. Mayes (Rapid City, SD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of the Beginning : From the Siege of Malta to the Allied Victory at El Alamein (Hardcover)

This book is one of the best ever written about the travails of the Allies, particularly the British, as they struggled to stop the Nazi's unchecked aggression in the early days of WWII. The authors have woven a colorful chronological tapestry of individual soldiers', airmens' and sailors' stories, entwined with the broader perspectives and struggles of Churchill and Roosevelt as they approach the strategic challenges of a global war. The text follows the various central characters as they fit into the chronology, so each ones story is told against the backdrop of the overall war as it unfolds. This gives the book an almost novel quality, captivating the reader as these personalities tell their stories. The reader is given a foxhole look at the very bloody and unusual warfare conducted in the desert, following enlisted men and junior officers as they try to outwit the genius of Field Marshal Irwin Rommel at the very pointed end of the spear. Most of the first-person testimony is seen for the first time and is riveting in its realism, making the reader feel as if they are actually witnessing the battles, skirmishes and situations confronting the combatants. As a result of historians generally paying scant attention to this period, both the strategic and tactical issues discussed make for particularly insightful and entertaining reading. The air war waged above and the convoys being sunk in attempting to re-supply Malta, and the very unique warfare in the desert are particulalry interesting. This book is easy to read and is very well researched, thus bringing the reader along on the airplanes, ships and armored vehicles as they are wielded as instruments of battle. This book is an absolute "must read" for anyone interested in the first halting successes of the Allies as they learn to meet and defeat the Axis powers.