Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Book: “An Army at Dawn”

It’s been out since 2002 but I just found it in half price books. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winning history of the US landings in North Africa and subsequent campaign ‘42/‘43.

Turns out it was a good thing we first tried invasion tactics on a place like Vichy North Africa, against the Germans it would have been no contest. Took a while for us to get our act together.

Eisenhower at that stage in the war was still learning his craft and could’ve easily been relieved of command.

One thing that really surprised me was the relatively minor role played by Patton in that campaign. I had always heard that we got thrashed at Kasserine Pass and then Patton came in and turned things around. It didn’t play out that way, far more complicated than that, and Patton’s role was relatively brief and no more successful than other commanders.

I ain’t finished yet but it’s a good read.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=an+army+...tag=hydsma-20&ref=pd_sl_64vugzysw6_e

hell of a good read. you will enjoy the trilogy.

Did not read the book, but generally speaking the war was won on the Eastern Front. Everything else was a side show. I know that is not what we are taught, but that's the truth.

One of the most enormous military struggles in human history and we have under played it because of western egos.

War on the Eastern Front was a war of extinction more than a war of conquest. This was made abundantly clear with the German treatment of civilians in Ukraine and at Leningrad.

There were two wars going on on the Eastern Front. There were the Wehrmacht campaigns which were the titanic military struggles. Then there was the heinous war against partisans and civilians which were perpetrated mostly, not all, by the SS Einsatzgruppen.

None of this changes the fact that the war was won on the eastern front. Germany lost there and the western front was a side show.

None of them were cakewalks.



I knew a Russian couple who were allowed to come to the US as the husband was dying. The Mrs. was an English teacher--she spoke impeccable English and without accent. Her entire village was killed by the Germans when they came through. Killed and dumped in the village's well. The kids had been sent east of the Urals.

I've also known men who fought on both sides of the Eastern front. Nasty place to be. But then so were the other places.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

A tremendous amount of German armament, fuel, and economic wealth, which could nave been used against the Russians, had to be diverted to defending German cities from the 8th Air Force. Not to mention the tremendous amount of aid the US gave the Russians.

Or the supplies we shipped to keep Britain alive. If Britain had fallen, Hitler could have transferred a lot of stuff to fight the Russians.

And Hitler seemed to think the West was a serious threat. His last big offensive was the Bulge.

I don't think this series of books takes a stand either way. I don't disagree with your statement. this book is a good read, and the series brings you along in a logical way. it can't cover everything and doesn't try.

The west did not really act until the Germans were staggering from the loses in the east. The flower of the German army died in Russia. The German army practically evaporated in countless battles across the Eastern front.

This. Hugely.

Great book--as are all of the 3 in his series.

I thought the chapter on Stalingrad was lacking.

I don’t think anyone here disputes the fact that 80% of the German Armed Forces were committed to and ultimately lost on the Russian Front.

I just got done reading Decision in Normandy, a largely Anglo-centric account of the planning and execution of the Normandy Campaign. In it Churchill himself expresses his concern that German troops were simply better in combat than British troops. An attitude reflected in the lack of aggressiveness of even Eighth Army outfits previously victorious in North Africa. Part of that too was that by 1944 the British, even though supplied by the US, were running out of manpower, and were having trouble replacing casualties.

As for North Africa, the author Rock Atkinson points out that Algeria/Tunisia was a good place for the Americans to be lousy in ie cut their teeth in combat.

For those troops who survived North Africa it was gonna be a long war, they were in it for the duration, Italy and/or Normandy yet to come, it would be interesting to know how many of them actually survived.

My Paternal Grandfather served as a combat engineer and did just that. lived to be 94 years old and died mercifully and peacefully, in his sleep.

A very good friend of mine went through North Africa, then Sicily and Anzio where he got blasted by a German 88. He lost an eye and a leg and a lot of use of an arm and became a great gunsmith. His induividual handicaps added up to 225% and the VA wouldn't give him a 100% disability. He was like most combat vets-- been there and wouldn't talk much about it.