Destiny in the Desert: The Story Behind El Alamein - the Battle That Turned the Tide

by Jonathan Dimbleby

This is a unique single-volume history of the road to El Alamein - 'the end of the beginning' - and the bloody battle that followed...It was the British victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 that inspired one of Churchill's most famous aphorisms: 'it is not the end nor is it the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning'. And yet the true significance of this iconic episode remains unrecognised. In this thrilling historical account, Jonathan Dimbleby describes the political and strategic realities that lay behind the battle, charting the nail-biting months that led to the victory at El Alamein in November 1942. It is a story of high drama, played out both in the war capitals of London, Washington, Berlin, Rome and Moscow, and at the front, in the command posts and foxholes in the desert. "El Alamein" is about politicians and generals, diplomats, civil servants and soldiers. It is about forceful characters and the tensions and rivalries between them. Drawing on official records and the personal insights of those involved at every level, Dimbleby creates a vivid portrait of a struggle which for Churchill marked the turn of the tide - and which for the soldiers on the ground involved fighting and dying in a foreign land.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Military History, Africa, Military Fiction

532 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Jonathan Dimbleby is a writer and filmmaker based in England. His five-part series on Russia was broadcast by BBC2 and accompanied by his book Russia: A Journal to the Heart of a Land and its People. Destiny in the Desert was recently nominated for the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Destiny in the Desert: The Story Behind El Alamein - the Battle That Turned the Tide mainly focuses on the political-strategic aspects of the North African campaign. The author clearly lays out the competing ideas on fighting in this region. Many thought it was a “sideshow” and not worth the effort. Some thought (rightly) that Churchill fought so hard here to keep the British Empire intact. The Americans were not, to put it mildly, interested in keeping the British Empire intact and did not want to divert scarce resources to the Brits. Churchill saw North Africa as a place where the Germans could be fought, perhaps the only viable place to fight during these dark early days of the war. The author briefly covers the various campaigns, Compass, Brevity, Crusader, First Alamein, etc. I thought the author did a decent, if short, job on the early battles. Too often the North African campaign is reduced to El Alamein and the Torch landings. Churchill had to convince Roosevelt and the Americans to support his “Army of the Nile”, it wasn’t easy as the Brits and the Yanks did not have high opinions of each other:

The British ambassador to Washington, Lord Halifax, who had been removed from his post as Foreign Secretary to make way for Eden at the turn of the year, did not share that sense of comfort. Stiff, aloof and formal, he could not abide the easygoing, casual style which he discovered to be the Washington way of doing business. Clearly wishing himself to have been sent anywhere than to the American capital, he was heard to observe wearily that trying to pin down the Americans was ’like a disorderly day’s rabbit-shooting’. In his aristocratic disdain for the vulgarity of the American elite with whom he came in contact, he was not alone. In the upper echelons of British society, the Americans were widely regarded as arrogant upstarts who were only too happy to see British soldiers die to save their American bacon. ’They are a quaint lot'--they are told that if we lose the war they will be next on Hitler’s list and yet they seem quite content to leave the actual fighting to us; they will do anything but fight,’ a Conservative MP jibed contemptuously.

…a (U.S) student at Oxford, ’had some reason to regard the British as a lot of toffee-nosed bastards who oppressed half the world and had a sinister talent for getting other people to do their fighting for them’. This degree of mutual mistrust and disdain required from Churchill a great deal more patience than he was accustomed to exercise or found it easy to command.

Churchill’s long effort to find success in North Africa is extraordinary. He searches long and hard for a successful general (especially after Generals Neame and O’Conner were captured, and another promising general was killed in an airplane crash). I was not aware that so many of the top British generals were so emotionally fragile – at least Dimbleby makes it seem so as all the generals seem to need attention after being berated by Churchill for failure or lethargy in the fight. Of course, Churchill was not an easy leader. Montgomery finally shows up and what an ass he truly was. But he has some good leadership skills and he won at Alamein, not by a superior plan, but by being flexible enough to change his attack plans as the battle progressed and being ruthless enough to expend as many men and material as needed to succeed.

Not much of the book is about the actual soldiers who fight the battles, which reduced the book to 4 Stars for me but there are some passages of interest:

In an echo of the First World War, the besieged formed a strangely comradely relationship with the besiegers as though, despite knowing they would kill and he killed, they had a common bond through sharing the same ghastly rituals of war; mutual hatred was notable by its absence. Sergeant Bolzano, serving in the Afrikakorps, described an occasion when his unit was laying mines around the perimeter. In the darkness, he heard a voice say, ’What are you doing here?’ One of his men replied ’We are laying mines.’ The British soldier answered, ’That’s exactly what we are doing.’ According to Bolzano, both sides went on laying mines, not shooting at each other; and left at the end.

The Aussies in Tobruk had a tough reputation:

After four months bearing the brunt of the siege, the Australians had acquired a powerful reputation for bloody-minded fearlessness. ’They were quite different to British troops. They were much more dedicated soldiers ...’ commented Brian Wyldbore-Smith, a British staff officer based in Tobruk who could not resist adding with the prejudice of his rank and class, ’They were a pretty rough lot. Many of them were ex-jailbirds and convicts.’ Whether there was any truth in this smear, the Australians were renowned for an egalitarian disregard of hierarchy, a trait which was widely admired by the British rank and file, though not by their superiors. Wyldbore-Smith, for example, observed with anxious disapproval, “They hadn’t got much use for their officers. They clipped their officers over the head every now and then.”

Just one example of a headquarters that thinks it knows what is going on but is really clueless:

In 27 May 1942, Lieutenant D. F. Parry overheard an exchange between a British ’forward’ officer at the southernmost tip of the Gazala-Line and a colleague embedded at XXX Corps headquarters at El Adem. Had it not been reported verbatim, the conversation might be presumed to have formed part of a Monty Python sketch forty years later.

OFFICER: There is a cloud of dust to the south; it has the appearance of a military formation.

REPLY FROM XXX CORPS: There are no, repeat no, troops to your south.

OFFICER: The cloud of dust is growing larger, it is undoubtedly a military formation.

REPLY (slightly irritable): We repeat, there are no, repeat no troops to your south.

OFFICER: Through the haze I can now identify tanks, difficult to identify but possibly German Mark IVs.

REPLY (irritably): We repeat, there are no troops, repeat no troops, to your south.

OFFICER: I am counting Mark IVs -one, two, three, four, five, six, seven -there is no doubt, repeat no doubt, that this is a large German force. Mark IVs number over thirty, and there are also Mark 1113 and a large number of motorized infantry. This could be, I repeat, this could be the Afrikakorps moving at a speed of approximately 30 miles per hour towards El Adem.

REPLY (with air of resignation): There are no forces in your area.

OFFICER: I have been spotted by the enemy and am under fire. I repeat, it is a large enemy formation and probably the Afrikakorps moving fast northwards.

REPLY (very bored): There are no enemy forces in your area.

OFFICER: It is undoubtedly the Afrikakorps moving at speed towards El Adem. I am under…

In the background it was possible to hear the sound of exploding shells . . . Then there was silence.

The recent movie about Churchill placed the darkest days as around the Battle of France and Dunkirk. But I think this book paints even darker days as Britain stands alone in the West. Just imagine the strain Churchill is under as 1941-42 progress from loss to loss. This is one of the strongest points in the book.

He (Churchill) was consumed by anxiety and gloom. At home he was beset on all sides by criticism of his leadership. Some agitated for him to surrender his role as Minister of Defence. Others complained that the public was infected by war weariness and low morale. Commentators in the press recalled the succession of military disasters over which he had presided in the desert, in Greece and Crete, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, Tobruk and latterly (on 19 August) the fiasco of the Dieppe raid…

The title listing the Battle of El Alamein as the one that turned the tide of WWII might be a little over the top but it certainly was one of the battles that turned the tide. Strongly recommended.

[Graeme Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Right off AVOID the Youtube audiobook. It, every time, mispronounces Auchinleck's name wrong. IT is pronounced AUK-in-leck not ocean-in-leck. Yes, that happens about a hundred times along with the Afrika corpse. The good bites: this is well up with JD's Russia and Atlantic war books, 3 and a half star s, I think.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good, though not great, book on the North African Campaign in WWII. Focusing on the British perspective, and then predominantly the political and geostrategic level, with only a sprinkling here and there of the operational aspect of the fighting itself, it tells the story from Mussolini's ambitious dreams, to the crumbling of Pamzerarmee Afrika at the brutal Battle of El Alamein.
Most of the focus is on several person's of the historical tale: Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler, Mussolini, Rommel, Auchinleck, Montgomery, and even Count Ciano. The author spends the majority of the book detailing first Churchill's strategic contest with his own generals and Parliament, and then his struggle to bring the Americans over to his way of thinking.
He does go into minor detail on incidents often glossed over or ignored in other histories of the theater: He discusses the pro Axis, and partly Nazi funded, Arab revolt in Iraq that threatened the British access to the Persian oil fields.
Likewise he discusses, albeit in brief, both the British invasion of Vichy French Syria and the joint British-Ethiopian campaign to liberate Abyssinia from Italian occupation. He also does a very good job detailing the wildly successful British counteroffensive against the initial Italian thrust into Egypt, Operation Compass.
Beyond his discussion of Compass, and El Alamein, however the author gives only a superficial examination of the military aspects of the campaign. While granted, there has been many books written on that, most are out of print, and one looking for a complete examination of the campaign will not find it here.
Still, for the political aspects this book is excellent.
Not bad, but also not great.
Three stars out of five.

[David Campton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb history of one of the turning points of World War Two. It is both pacey, reflecting the speed with which events turned in the North African campaign, and panoramic in its perspective, demonstrating how the direction of events in the desert were both affected by and in turn influenced global events. It goes someway to rehabilitate the reputations of Wavell and particularly Auchinleck, to whom the accounts of the desert campaign painted by Churchill and especially Montgomery were not kind. The latter two may have been British "heroes", given great credit for the victory in this campaign and ultimately the whole war, but this account reveals them to be somewhat bull headed, which they may well have needed to be to win the war, but Montgomery especially comes across as someone who was quick to blame others when things went wrong, but equally quick to claim their best ideas as his own. His conduct of the climactic 3rd Battle of Alamein seems to indicate someone who was bullish in public, buoying up the faltering morale of others, and a great "map room general" but with a tendency to disregard the actual human costs of war and the fact that things don't always work out on the ground in the same way that they do on a campaign map. This suggests that he was a direct product of the World War One school of strategy, an approach which would later fall short in his conduct of Operation Market Garden and the ill-fated push towards Arnhem after D-Day. I actually returned to read this a second time as a counterweight while reading Churchill's account of this part of the war and it served that purpose well, but a second reading probably revealed depths that I missed on a first reading due to the pace of the narrative, leaving me even more sympathetic to Wavell and Auchinleck, who had to deal with the realities of the North African campaign while under-resourced and, to a certain extent, undermined by the interference of Churchill. But the concluding section, looking at what happened to these and other key people in this campaign, markedly only name-checks generals and heads of state. What neither Churchill nor Dimbleby do is offer the perspective of the "Desert Rat", the ordinary soldiers who paid the price of victory in this and other spheres in enormous numbers. Perhaps I now need to re-read Spike Milligan's take on the war for that, and a few more laughs than are to be found in the accounts like this.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute masterpiece on the Desert War and all of the players involved in it. This one goes on my Shelf of Honour.

[Eric Wishman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle (The Road to El Alamein - The Battle That Turned The Tide of World War II) captures the overall essence of the book. Only the last 20% or so is on the final battle of El Alamein while the rest focuses on what proceeded the battle from the start of the war. Mr. Dimbleby explains why the Middle East/Mediterranean wasn't seen as a secondary theater of operations to Churchill, Hitler, and Mussolini but had strategic value for different reasons to each of them. He narrates the back and forth battles in Libya and Egypt while tying the battle outcomes to the strategic and geopolitical considerations facing the three protagonists (later four with America's involvement). The book gave me a better appreciation of why this was an important theater of operation and would highly recommend it.

[Roy Szweda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up at the library just a couple of weeks ago and finished it today - it is that good! Learned a lot about this key period of WW2 especially the higher level stuff between Churchill and Roosevelt. Over the past couple of years my take on WC's wartime success has been tempered by revisionist accounts. My respect for him grew after this account. In fact it might not be too much of stretch to say this was his finest hour. JD nicely weaves the tale of how the transatlantic seduction went down set against the utter horror of bloody battles and frustration on the sands and in the air of North Africa.
As another reviewer has pointed out books such as this are worth a read simply because they offer a better balance of perspective. Sadly the vox pop will likely always go with the "Monty Trumps the Desert Fox" contest. Reality as shown here is riddled with other views and indeed some outright lies and exaggerations. Sadly these come from the guy on "our side" not the "baddie". Of course they are "men of the moment" and larger than life just like WC himself, but to denigrate the achievements of others to boost your own is not going to win you universal friendship. Somehow the result eclipses the method and in this cataclysmic story this is not surprising. People will remember the relief it brought to such perilous times. Here though you will read how bloody it turned out to be. Perhaps JD could have spent a little more time on the "hinge moment" that tipped the AK into retreat but I shall look elsewhere and hope the writer is as engaging as JD. It could have done with a few more maps as I like to see where the units are when reading such books.
It covers the aerial action too though maybe this is another area I would have liked more. Too many books fail in this respect. Maybe the Navy too...
What it did quite well was the spy stuff. Nowadays a much fuller account can be written without the secrecy restraints that hampered earlier accounts. I think this casts a very different light on the legendary skills of Rommel for example. And Monty had an inestimable advantage when that pendulum swung his way. Ultra helped a lot but it was Rommel's lack of the earlier information that gave Monty the edge.
Finally, Jonathon just had to write this book - his dad was actually there as a correspondent! This confers an authority others might envy even tho JD is not a military man. Its readability encourages me to seek out his other books even though they are I think non-military subjects.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book outlines two important World War II battles fought in the area:

The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942): This saw the advance of Axis troops on Alexandria. The Allies blunted this, stopping the German Panzers that were trying to outflank their position.

The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 4 November 1942): Here the Allied forces broke the Axis line. They then forced them back to Tunisia. Winston Churchill, said of this victory: "Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." After the war, he wrote: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."

Dimbleby describes the political and strategic realities that lay behind the battle. He charts the months that led to the victory. Drawing on official records and the personal insights of those involved, he sketches a vivid portrait of this struggle, placing it in the context of global grand strategy

Dimbleby appears to acknowledge that these battles were strategically irrelevant to the loftier purpose of defeating Nazi Germany. But on the other seems reluctant to debunk Churchill. Therefore, he devises some (ultimately unconvincing) counterfactual reasons why it should be celebrated.

The book could have done with some more editing to reign in Dimbleby’s highly adjectival style. This grates after a while and steers him too often into the swamp of cliché.

[Matt Whittingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed and fascinating account of the ebbs and flows of this great showdown in the desert.

Dimbleby does a fine job of bringing the major belligerents and characters back to life, and ably sets the battle for North Africa in the context of Churchill's broader strategy, and the dire World situation in 1942 - 1943

[Perato · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars rounded down. Not as good as Dimblebys later product, The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War. This book focuses mostly on the political side of the battle, including the politics between generals and between superpowers. Grand strategy guides this book more than small unit tactics.

This is a decent introduction to the subject, but doesn't rise to be a book that I could recommend without reservations. Dimbleby relies too much on Alan Moorehead and Richard Dimbleby(his dad) in his covering of the actual combat. He gives balanced enough account of the battle from both sides, leaning to Allied side. There isn't much in-depth analysis, it's more like a recollection of what happened and much of the debate surrounding the subject is left untouched.

Like the name implies, the book is mostly about the road to the battles of El Alamein, and anything after it, is covered in last 20 pages. Compared to Bierman & Smith's Alamein: War Without Hate the maps were sparse and not so good in quality. These two books could work as a duo or even a trio with An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943

[Steve Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much great information in here. I had a hard time finding a book on this part of the war in the desert. There is plenty about the western area and Operation Torch but precious little on this part. This book was just the ticket. Great detail as well as covering all the political jockeying through the whole of the period. Highly recommend.

[Bob Mobley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Dimbleby has written a superb book that captures the traumatic events of the Desert War, together with the challenges, dilemmas and decisions of the Great War leaders. This is a book that gives an insightful picture into the issues, challenges, conflicts and unintended consequences that are part and parcel of any nature of military conflict. It was well written history. It is a broader look at the African campaign during WWII than I have read in any other history of the time. I think it is fascinating, informative and very provocative in its insights about the dynamic issues that were the underlying currents driving the decision process of both the Allies and the Axis during the Second World War. I believe you will enjoy reading it if you like history in its broad sweeping panoramic nature.

[John Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb account of the famous battle of the desert war in WWII, good background preamble to set the stage, well balanced, although predominantly from the Allies perspective, gives great insights into the key figures in the conflict, a few techincal errors with regards to tanks but that's the wargamer in me! Highly recommended as an introduction to the subject or for those with a good knowledge of the conflict.

[Angad Bajwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed description of events that unfolded in the North African campaign. The political intricacies with military actions. The point of view of the belligerents, the military establishments, the government dealings and behind the scenes action has been explained and covered with great explanation.

Recommended for anyone who wants to read about Churchill’s extensive role in the North African campaign and military history of the second world war.

[Eric Grounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read dozens of books about the Desert War. This version is almost written with a novelist's pace and style. It reads very well and I greatly enjoyed Jonathan Dimbleby's acute opinion of Montgomery and others. I hate to report that I found three or four very small errors, but they did not disturb the thrust of the book at all. Thank you Mr Dimbleby

[Keith Johnstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable book clearly well researched and written, if a little turgid in parts - but perhaps more due to the complexity of the subject. As a grandson of someone who fought in the 2nd NZ Division I was hoping for more on the conditions for the average soldier and the impact of the strategic and political decisions on them

[Stephen Boiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few new bits of info concerning Signal intelligence. other wise a decent read.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://lobloc.net/2015/10/12/destiny-...

[Keith PJ Duggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this and learned a lot. Few realize the importance of these battles to the overall Allied War effort

[Rick B.H. Ghost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full account of the desert battles great read wins and losses.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Russell Wardle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and well researched

[Jamie Huen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for anyone interested in the North Africa campaign. Typical Jonathan Dimbleby, WW2 book with great detail and told from all perspectives

[Nick Harriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author achieved the rare balance of detail, flow and context. I had a good understanding of the subject previously in its wider context of the War, but after reading this, I feel this has been taken to a new level, with never getting boring by being overwhelmed by minutiae. Highly recommended for anybody interested in World War 2.

[Sean Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good review of the Desert campaign up to and including the 2nd Battle of El Alamein. Good coverage on how the rest of the war affected and was affected by this often overlooked theatre. Well worth a read.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book covering the desert campaign in excellent detail. If your looking for a book that gives you a good understanding of the desert war, this is it.

[Paul Pryce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read!

[Robert Sparrenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainly a look at the British and Germans facing off in North Africa during world war 2. The book also provides the geopolitical background as to what was happening in Germany and Britain during this time. General Rommel is featured heavily. It’s well written and not too heavy on battle formations that can make a war book very dry and boring.

Worth a look if you are into this theater during the war. Definitely one that doesn’t get as much print as it should but was very important.

[Tansy Hepton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is straightforward military history, but surprisingly gripping. I knew only the basic headlines so found the long background and build up very interesting. I'm generally more likely to read a book about people than about battles (Spike Milligan's "Rommel Gunner Who?" is a better book for understanding what it was like to be a soldier in North Africa) but the analysis is thorough and balanced, and the degree of political maneuvering (especially between Churchill and the US) is fascinating.