Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook26 hours
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
Written by Rick Atkinson
Narrated by George Guidall
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Beginning the trilogy that continues with The Day of Battle, An Army at Dawn opens on the eve of Operation TORCH, the daring amphibious invasion of Morocco and Algeria. After three days of hard fighting against the French, American and British troops push deeper into North Africa.
But the confidence gained after several early victories soon wanes; casualties mount rapidly, battle plans prove ineffectual, and hope for a quick and decisive victory evaporates. The Allies discover that they are woefully unprepared to fight and win this war. North Africa becomes a proving ground: it is here that American officers learn how to lead, here that soldiers learn how to hate, here that an entire army learns what it will take to vanquish a formidable enemy. In North Africa, the Allied coalition came into its own, the enemy forever lost the initiative, and the United States -- for the first time -- began to act like a great power.
But the confidence gained after several early victories soon wanes; casualties mount rapidly, battle plans prove ineffectual, and hope for a quick and decisive victory evaporates. The Allies discover that they are woefully unprepared to fight and win this war. North Africa becomes a proving ground: it is here that American officers learn how to lead, here that soldiers learn how to hate, here that an entire army learns what it will take to vanquish a formidable enemy. In North Africa, the Allied coalition came into its own, the enemy forever lost the initiative, and the United States -- for the first time -- began to act like a great power.
Author
Rick Atkinson
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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Reviews for An Army at Dawn
Rating: 4.8088235294117645 out of 5 stars
5/5
68 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slow to start but once the book gets going it is full of vivid descriptions of events. This book gives a very different portrayal of the events in Africa and is very interesting for this perspective.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In some of the best narrative history on any subject I’ve read, Atkinson sheds much-needed light on a neglected front of The Big One. The Great Men are presented in all their glory and inglory as they learn together how to be the Army of the West; the usual Dramatus Personae of WWII are all assembled for your liking, but Atkinson’s great skill is in taking you from Patton’s command tent, up to 30,000 feet for a bird’s-eye-view of all the goings-on, and then back down to ground level with the ordinary enlisted men who had to make it all happen. Spectacular.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating! A brilliant blend of describing and analyzing great leaders. the ordinary soldier, and strategies. So much more!