An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy

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Macmillan, 2002 - History - 681 pages

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa.

The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.

Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.

Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.

 

Contents

PROLOGUE
1
PART ONE
19
PASSAGE
21
Gathering the Ships
33
Rendezvous at Cherchel
42
On the Knees of the Gods
49
A Man Must Believe in His Luck
57
LANDING
69
The Touch of the World
280
The Sinners Concourse
295
A BITS AND PIECES WAR
301
This Cant Happen to Us
312
The Mortal Dangers That Beset Us
317
A Good Night for a Mass Murder
327
KASSERINE
339
None Returned
348

In Barbary
78
VILLAIN
87
To the Last Man
91
Glory Enough for Us All
103
BEACHHEAD
116
A Blue Flag over Oran
124
An Orgy of Disorder
130
Battle for the Kasbah
141
Its All Over for Now
148
PART TWO
161
PUSHING EAST
163
A Cold Country with a Hot Sun
167
MedjezelBab
178
Fat Geese on a Pond
187
PRIMUS IN CARTHAGO
194
The Dead Salute the Gods
201
Jerry Is Counterattacking
217
A COUNTRY OF DEFILES
237
They Shot the Little Son of a Bitch
250
This Is the Hand of God
256
PART THREE
263
CASABLANCA
265
Speedy Valley
270
Sometimes That Is Not Good Enough
353
This Place Is Too Hot
366
Order Counterorder and Disorder
373
Lay Roughly on the Tanks
382
PART FOUR
393
THE WORLD WE KNEW IS A LONG TIME DEAD
395
We Know Therell Be Troubles of Every Sort
398
One Needs Luck in War
406
The Devil Is Come Down
416
OVER THE TOP
431
Search Your Soul
444
Night Closes Down
453
I Had a Plan Now I Have None
464
THE INNER KEEP
480
Hammering Home the Cork
490
Count Your Children Now Adolf
499
Tunisgrad
513
EPILOGUE
530
NOTES
543
SOURCES
626
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
655
INDEX
660
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy—An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light—as well as The Long Gray Line and other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, a George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.

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