Hitler’s War in Africa 1941-1942: The Road to Cairo

AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR Adolf Hitler’s war in Africa arose from the urgent need to reinforce the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, whose 1940 invasion of Egypt had been soundly beaten. Of secondary importance to his ideological dream of conquering the Soviet Union, Germany’s Fuhrer rushed a small mechanised force into the unfamiliar North African theatre to stave off defeat and avert any political fallout. This fresh account begins with the arrival of the largely unprepared German formations, soon to be stricken by disease and heavily reliant upon captured materiel, as they fought a bloody series of see-sawing battles across the Western Desert. David Mitchelhill-Green has gathered a wealth of personal narratives from both sides as he follows the brash exploits of General Erwin Rommel, intent on retaking Libya; the Nile firmly in his sights. Against this backdrop is the brutal human experience of war itself. AUTHOR: David Mitchelhill-Green is the author of ‘Rommel in North Africa’, ‘With Rommel in the Desert’, ‘Air War Over North Africa’, ‘Fighting in Ukraine’, ‘Rommel’s Ghost Division’ and ‘Tobruk 1942’. Having travelled the globe in search of lost stories from the Second World War, many of his photographic investigations have featured in the U.K. magazine ‘After the Battle’. Several years spent in Japan also led to an interest in the country’s feudal history and the co-authoring of ‘Castles of the Samurai’ and ‘Samurai Castles’. David lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife Jennifer and two children.
32 b/w illustrations