Product Description

From the bestselling author of Fortress Malta this is the second book in the Mediterranean war trilogy. This book looks afresh at the conflict in Northern Africa, focusing for the first time on the involvement of the US and the way this early collaboration to defeat shaped the whole Anglo-American axis for the rest of the war in Europe. By June 1942, Britain had reached her lowest ebb. Her military command was in tatters, her armies beaten, and in the Middle East it seemed all might be lost. Her new ally, America, had only fledgling armed forces and was severely under-trained, yet it was this alliance of the weary combatant and naive newcomer, coming together for the first time in North Africa, that would eventually bring about the defeat of Nazi Germany. This crucial period -- from defeat at Gazala through to the victories of Alamein and, ultimately, Tunisia -- was a time of learning for the Allies. Yet by the end Britain and America had finally gained material and certain tactical advantages over Germany, particularly in air warfare. As this book shows, the development of a tactical air force -- principles that are still used to this day -- were founded over the skies of North Africa. When the Axis forces were finally driven from North Africa in May 1943, over 250,000 Axis troops were taken prisoner, more than had surrendered to the Russians at Stalingrad. It was a major victory and a crucial steppingstone to the future invasion of Italy and France. In this new reappraisal, James Holland interweaves the personal stories of the men -- and women -- who made up these polyglot Allied forces: British and American, Nepalese and Punjabi, South African and Australian, Maori and Zulu, from all ranks and all services. From the heat and dust of the Western Desert to the mud and mountains of Northern Tunisia, this book charts the extraordinary first days of an Alliance that has worked together ever since.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46936 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

Review
'Anyone who wants to know how it felt to fight in the desert war should read Holland's book. It represents a remarkable collation of personal experience and sensible historical judgments.' Sunday Telegraph, Max Hastings 'Holland has produced a wonderful book whose pace!never seems to flag ! he is a master at evoking time and place, with haunting descriptions of the desert landscape ! If there is a better book on the North African campaign, I haven't read it.' Daily Telegraph, Saul David 'Using personal testimony and private memoirs as effectively as official archives, he recreates the hardships and challenges faced by ordinary soldiers and reassesses the tactical and strategic innovations that finally gave the allies the upper hand.' Sunday Times 'as Holland shows, this period saw the realisation of how the war might eventually be won' BBC History Magazine 'stands out from the crowd' Literary Review, Nigel Jones 'The book gives the individuals, be they commander-in-chiefs or infantry, space that attests to their bravery and sacrifices ! a comprehensive appraisal of the war in North Africa.' Good Book Guide 'Holland tells the story brilliantly. He has delved into archives for letters and diaries and diligently tracked down survivors ! Vividly, intelligently, movingly, Holland's monumental chronicle tells it like it was.' Patrick Bishop, Mail on Sunday

Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2005
'Holland has produced a wonderful book...If there is a better book on the North African campaign, I haven't read it.'

BBC History Magazine, June 2005
'as Holland shows, this period saw the realisation of how the war might eventually be won.'

Customer Reviews

Outstanding.
James Holland has come from nowhere to produce the best military history book for many years, maybe the best in the last decade. If you enjoy what call “narrative” military history in the tradition of Cornelius Ryan, Max Hasting and the Rick Atkinson then Together We Stand is a must have book. It is better than the books by any of the three mentioned above and they set very high standards.

Together We Stand covers much of the same ground as the excellent An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson but starts far earlier in ’42. Sixty percent of the book deals with the fighting in the summer and autumn of ’42 before Torch and the North African landings.

The style is the traditional one of mixing high quality research, operational analysis and person accounts. Only James Holland does this better than even Rick Atkinson, and I am one of those who thought the hype surrounding Rick Atkinson’s An Army At Dawn was fully justified.

James Holland gives greater prominence to the air war than most books and describes that warfare more eloquently than others. But for those more interested in ground warfare, as I am, do not be alarmed as the ground war still gets the majority of the coverage and is covered in great detail.

It is a big book at over 700 pages of main text but never falters. An outstanding mixture of analysis, story telling and page turning thriller all in one. I hope there will be a long line of military histories to come form James Holland. In James Holland military history has a new star.

Unputdownable - a masterpiece
What a difficult job this author sets out to do! To describe the strategy and tactics as well as the lived experience of these huge North African campaigns - to get under the skin of both the generals and the ordinary soldiers in the same account is extremely ambitious. But he succeeds brilliantly - having read this book you really do feel as if there is nothing more to know about almot all aspects of these fascinating campaigns.

At first I baulked at the length of the book, but it was so engrossing and superbly well-written, that in the end I wanted it to go on for ever. Finishing it was like losing a good friend. Best of all, for me, were the personal accounts - the amount of research that must have gone into this is staggering. Thoroughly recommended.

Simply superb, history for everyman
Another epic piece of work from this prodigious young writer. I guess that most of us, of a certain at least, are aware of the outline of events that shaped WW2 around the world but have never taken the trouble to read any historical accounts, either by professional historians or by the generals who tend to publish their own accounts of how they won the war. Well this is something different, written like a novel, with personal accounts by both the generals and other participants, including the humble soldiers of all nations. Numerous reputations are made and damaged here, on the back of his obviously meticulous and copious research, we discover that both Patton and Monty were egotists of epic proportions and did not in fact cover themselves in the glory they claimed. The real genius behind the North Africa campaign we discover was in fact the quiet, unassuming General Alexander assisted in no small way by the chief of air war operations, 'Mary' Coningham, a gritty and talented New Zealander whose handling of aviation assets was vital to the eventual successful outcome. There is so much in this brilliant book that it is difficult to pick out any headline issues, perhaps the most illuminating is the unpreparedness of the allied forces, especially the US, who didn't even possess a modern army at the outset of this campaign, but who completed it with a professional, battle hardened force that has never been surpassed since. A truly remarkable exposure of little known, but important facts that have been obscured for many years by the unfortunate Hollywood version of events.