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Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Campaign #1
Afrikakorps: Rommel et ses Hommes
Minor wear on bottom edge of spine. Pages are clean.
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1968
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53 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth John Macksey
55 books16 followersBritish author and historian who specialized in military history and military biography, particularly of the Second World War. Macksey was commissioned in the Royal Armoured Corps and served during the Second World War (earning the Military Cross under the command of Percy Hobart). Macksey later wrote the (authoritative) biography of Hobart.Macksey gained a permanent commission in 1946, was transferred to the Royal Tank Regiment in 1947, reached the rank of major in 1957 and retired from the Army in 1968.
Amongst many other books, Macksey wrote two volumes of alternate history, one, entitled Invasion, dealt with a successful invasion of England by Germany in 1940 and the other describing a NATO–Warsaw Pact clash in the late 1980s. The latter book was done under contract to the Canadian Forces and focuses on the Canadian role in such a conflict. He was an editor and contributor to Greenhill's Alternate Decisions series since 1995.
In Macksey's Guderian – Panzer General, he refuted the view of historian Sir Basil Liddell-Hart regarding Hart's influence on the development of German Tank Theory in the years leading up to 1939.
Amongst many other books, Macksey wrote two volumes of alternate history, one, entitled Invasion, dealt with a successful invasion of England by Germany in 1940 and the other describing a NATO–Warsaw Pact clash in the late 1980s. The latter book was done under contract to the Canadian Forces and focuses on the Canadian role in such a conflict. He was an editor and contributor to Greenhill's Alternate Decisions series since 1995.
In Macksey's Guderian – Panzer General, he refuted the view of historian Sir Basil Liddell-Hart regarding Hart's influence on the development of German Tank Theory in the years leading up to 1939.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 19, 2026
In the middle of this exciting story of doomed warriors fighting in a wasteland, Major Kenneth Macksey writes that in no form of warfare is nerves the decisive factor more than in desert battles. The war in North Africa between the German Afrika Corps and the British in 1941-43 pitted a military genius, Erwin Rommel, against a series of mediocre enemy commanders with better-equipped troops, trained and supplied from Europe, and the "Desert Fox" won every contest until El Alamein against Montgomery. How he accomplished this feat is the heart of AFRIKA CORPS.
Rommel arrived in North Africa in February of 1941 to take charge of the newly-created Afrika Corps, facing a worst-case scenario caused by Hitler's Italian ally. Mussolini had stupidly ordered his Libyan army to invade Egypt in 1940. The invasion was easily repulsed, and the Germans were forced to rescue the Duce from ruin. By February of 1941, British legions under General O'Connor, answering to the British commander in the Middle East, Wavell, had entered Libya, threatening the Axis southern flank in the Mediterranean. Rommel alighted in Tripoli, bringing only one Panzer division with him and stuck with tens of thousands of unreliable Italian soldiers. A genius takes adversity for opportunity. Rommel immediately launched an offensive against Wavell to forestall his British opponent from receiving more material and men in Egypt. The Desert Fox read his opponent well. The British army was still stuck with a strategy based on the infantry, one that starved the tank corps. Churchill's decision to send troops from Egypt to German-occupied Greece, which proved disastrous, weakened the British in North Africa just when they most needed reinforcements. Within a month, the Afrika Corps was inside Egypt, and Churchill reassigned Wavell to Southeast Asia, his place in command assumed by the equally hapless General Auchlinek. Only the tough Australian garrison, besieged by Rommel at Tobruk, held out in defiance.
Rommel lived by Danton's dictum for war: "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'adauce!", but daring and courage were not the only reasons for these early triumphs. He had mastered blitzkrieg commanding Panzers through France in 1940. Now he applied that tactic to the desert. Coordinate tanks, artillery, and air power into one mailed fist; strike fast, hard, and punch holes in the enemy defense; go behind him, and disrupt his communications and supply routes. Though British tanks always outnumbered their Panzer counterparts, they proved vulnerable to German anti-tank guns at close range. The first generation of British tanks in North Africa turned out to be largely useless in desert warfare. Meanwhile, Rommel availed himself of the latest Tiger III and Tiger IV Panzers. The German 88 anti-tank cannon was devastating in offensive operations, while British artillery worked only sporadically against German armor. Afrika Corps enjoyed superb air reconnaissance and strafing missions by the Luftwaffe kept the British pinned down. Royal Air Force (RAF) planes had mostly been shipped back home to Britain or sent to Greece to fight the German air menace. Lastly, Rommel's intelligence service frequently tapped into British army communications before and during battle; a fact that went unnoticed by Wavell and Auchlinek. None of this would have mattered, however, if Rommel's troops had not been willing to risk their lives by fighting the British under their very noses, or if their commander had been easily intimidated by great odds. One fascinating aspect of this war is how the Germans scavenged the desert for the remains of British tanks and trucks and quickly converted them for their usage.
Rommel, however, had serious problems of his own that hampered his ability to take Egypt. Hitler regarded North Africa as a sideshow to the war in Europe, and perpetually starved Rommel of fuel and equipment. He was like another military genius stuck in the desert, Lawrence of Arabia. His orders were to tie down enemy troops, not to win a final victory, with minimal forces. Throughout the campaign, Rommel had only two Panzer divisions at his disposal. Obtaining supplies from Europe depended on keeping the Mediterranean free from British interference; something Mussolini kept promising Hitler the Italian Navy, the Regia Marina, could do but never accomplished. The British held on to the island of Malta throughout the war in the face of savage bombardment by the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force, meaning Afrika Corps could not count on a steady stream of supplies. Time was not on Rommel's side. Unless he conquered Egypt the British were bound to increase their land, sea, and air presence there once the tide of war in Europe turned in their favor, which it did by the summer of 1942. The entry of the U.S. into the war in 1941 was even worse news for Rommel. The British soon had access to the latest American Sherman tanks, whose firepower the Panzers could not match.
The climacteric of the Afrika Corps campaign came in 1942, as it did for the rest of the Axis. Hitler forbade Rommel from any more thrusts into Egypt until the German offensive in the Caucasus was victorious, and, of course, it never was. The British removed pro-Axis regimes in Persia and Iraq, and the Free French liberated Syria from Vichy control, ending the dream of having Afrika Corps link up with German-friendly states in the Middle East. More supplies began to reach the British Army by way of the Red Sea through the Suez Canal. Malta held on for another year, forestalling and finally cancelling the German invasion plan, Operation Hercules. The Commonwealth nations sent the mother country more troops for North Africa; Indians, South Africans, who took over the defense of Tobruk, and New Zealanders. The British exchanged their old, unreliable tanks for the doughtier Matilda class, and the Shermans finally arrived from America. The insufferable Auchlinek was relieved of command by Field Marshall Harold Alexander, who appointed General Bernard Montgomery to head the British Eighth Army in Egypt. The slowly dwindling supply of fuel was Rommel's albatross, but global politics, from Berlin to Damascus, London to Washington, D.C., is what doomed Afrika Corps. After one last stab at capturing Suez in subtle defiance of Hitler, and finally taking Tobruk, Rommel faced off against the Eighth Army at the first battle of El Alamein. British land mines, RAF strafing runs, tanks worthy of desert combat, and new artillery pieces broke the back of Afrika Corps, and Rommel's offensive turned into a gallant, brilliantly executed defensive retreat back into Libya. When American troops landed in North Africa at the start of 1943, capturing Morocco, Algeria, and moving into Tunisia, Rommel found himself trapped between the Eighth Army, victorious at the second battle of El Alamein, and the U.S. II Corps. One last victory for Afrika Corps at Kasserine Pass could not turn the tide of battle. Hitler withdrew Rommel from Africa, lest they both lose face, and the Corps and its Italian allies, now mostly stragglers, surrendered in the hundreds of thousands.
The Rommel legend endures to this day. Rommel's fate was the stuff of Greek tragedy. His Afrika Corps was destined to lose, but he lost because of superior numbers on the enemy side, not because of a lack of courage or wisdom. Churchill himself paid homage to the glorious commander who had stymied his soldiers in North Africa. Hitler took him from Tunisia and reassigned him to France to smash the coming cross-Channel invasion from England. His death with honor in 1944 for having plotted Hitler's assassination sealed his reputation as a gallant soldier and martyr to the Nazis. Afrika Corps chose to surrender, not die, after the last battle, with heads held up high in defiance of Montgomery, Patton, and Hitler. The Afrika Corps was a medieval cavalry unit trapped in modern times.
Rommel arrived in North Africa in February of 1941 to take charge of the newly-created Afrika Corps, facing a worst-case scenario caused by Hitler's Italian ally. Mussolini had stupidly ordered his Libyan army to invade Egypt in 1940. The invasion was easily repulsed, and the Germans were forced to rescue the Duce from ruin. By February of 1941, British legions under General O'Connor, answering to the British commander in the Middle East, Wavell, had entered Libya, threatening the Axis southern flank in the Mediterranean. Rommel alighted in Tripoli, bringing only one Panzer division with him and stuck with tens of thousands of unreliable Italian soldiers. A genius takes adversity for opportunity. Rommel immediately launched an offensive against Wavell to forestall his British opponent from receiving more material and men in Egypt. The Desert Fox read his opponent well. The British army was still stuck with a strategy based on the infantry, one that starved the tank corps. Churchill's decision to send troops from Egypt to German-occupied Greece, which proved disastrous, weakened the British in North Africa just when they most needed reinforcements. Within a month, the Afrika Corps was inside Egypt, and Churchill reassigned Wavell to Southeast Asia, his place in command assumed by the equally hapless General Auchlinek. Only the tough Australian garrison, besieged by Rommel at Tobruk, held out in defiance.
Rommel lived by Danton's dictum for war: "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'adauce!", but daring and courage were not the only reasons for these early triumphs. He had mastered blitzkrieg commanding Panzers through France in 1940. Now he applied that tactic to the desert. Coordinate tanks, artillery, and air power into one mailed fist; strike fast, hard, and punch holes in the enemy defense; go behind him, and disrupt his communications and supply routes. Though British tanks always outnumbered their Panzer counterparts, they proved vulnerable to German anti-tank guns at close range. The first generation of British tanks in North Africa turned out to be largely useless in desert warfare. Meanwhile, Rommel availed himself of the latest Tiger III and Tiger IV Panzers. The German 88 anti-tank cannon was devastating in offensive operations, while British artillery worked only sporadically against German armor. Afrika Corps enjoyed superb air reconnaissance and strafing missions by the Luftwaffe kept the British pinned down. Royal Air Force (RAF) planes had mostly been shipped back home to Britain or sent to Greece to fight the German air menace. Lastly, Rommel's intelligence service frequently tapped into British army communications before and during battle; a fact that went unnoticed by Wavell and Auchlinek. None of this would have mattered, however, if Rommel's troops had not been willing to risk their lives by fighting the British under their very noses, or if their commander had been easily intimidated by great odds. One fascinating aspect of this war is how the Germans scavenged the desert for the remains of British tanks and trucks and quickly converted them for their usage.
Rommel, however, had serious problems of his own that hampered his ability to take Egypt. Hitler regarded North Africa as a sideshow to the war in Europe, and perpetually starved Rommel of fuel and equipment. He was like another military genius stuck in the desert, Lawrence of Arabia. His orders were to tie down enemy troops, not to win a final victory, with minimal forces. Throughout the campaign, Rommel had only two Panzer divisions at his disposal. Obtaining supplies from Europe depended on keeping the Mediterranean free from British interference; something Mussolini kept promising Hitler the Italian Navy, the Regia Marina, could do but never accomplished. The British held on to the island of Malta throughout the war in the face of savage bombardment by the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force, meaning Afrika Corps could not count on a steady stream of supplies. Time was not on Rommel's side. Unless he conquered Egypt the British were bound to increase their land, sea, and air presence there once the tide of war in Europe turned in their favor, which it did by the summer of 1942. The entry of the U.S. into the war in 1941 was even worse news for Rommel. The British soon had access to the latest American Sherman tanks, whose firepower the Panzers could not match.
The climacteric of the Afrika Corps campaign came in 1942, as it did for the rest of the Axis. Hitler forbade Rommel from any more thrusts into Egypt until the German offensive in the Caucasus was victorious, and, of course, it never was. The British removed pro-Axis regimes in Persia and Iraq, and the Free French liberated Syria from Vichy control, ending the dream of having Afrika Corps link up with German-friendly states in the Middle East. More supplies began to reach the British Army by way of the Red Sea through the Suez Canal. Malta held on for another year, forestalling and finally cancelling the German invasion plan, Operation Hercules. The Commonwealth nations sent the mother country more troops for North Africa; Indians, South Africans, who took over the defense of Tobruk, and New Zealanders. The British exchanged their old, unreliable tanks for the doughtier Matilda class, and the Shermans finally arrived from America. The insufferable Auchlinek was relieved of command by Field Marshall Harold Alexander, who appointed General Bernard Montgomery to head the British Eighth Army in Egypt. The slowly dwindling supply of fuel was Rommel's albatross, but global politics, from Berlin to Damascus, London to Washington, D.C., is what doomed Afrika Corps. After one last stab at capturing Suez in subtle defiance of Hitler, and finally taking Tobruk, Rommel faced off against the Eighth Army at the first battle of El Alamein. British land mines, RAF strafing runs, tanks worthy of desert combat, and new artillery pieces broke the back of Afrika Corps, and Rommel's offensive turned into a gallant, brilliantly executed defensive retreat back into Libya. When American troops landed in North Africa at the start of 1943, capturing Morocco, Algeria, and moving into Tunisia, Rommel found himself trapped between the Eighth Army, victorious at the second battle of El Alamein, and the U.S. II Corps. One last victory for Afrika Corps at Kasserine Pass could not turn the tide of battle. Hitler withdrew Rommel from Africa, lest they both lose face, and the Corps and its Italian allies, now mostly stragglers, surrendered in the hundreds of thousands.
The Rommel legend endures to this day. Rommel's fate was the stuff of Greek tragedy. His Afrika Corps was destined to lose, but he lost because of superior numbers on the enemy side, not because of a lack of courage or wisdom. Churchill himself paid homage to the glorious commander who had stymied his soldiers in North Africa. Hitler took him from Tunisia and reassigned him to France to smash the coming cross-Channel invasion from England. His death with honor in 1944 for having plotted Hitler's assassination sealed his reputation as a gallant soldier and martyr to the Nazis. Afrika Corps chose to surrender, not die, after the last battle, with heads held up high in defiance of Montgomery, Patton, and Hitler. The Afrika Corps was a medieval cavalry unit trapped in modern times.
March 22, 2017
I though this was an excellent book about the German Afrika Korps in the Desert Campaign of 1941 to 1943 . The author was a military man ( he wrote 40 books before he died )
I have always found any book by Kenneth Macksey to be well-written , fully researched , and above all VERY readable . The main strength of this edition of the Purnell's History of the Second World War series is that you are clearly able to follow the progress of the Battles of the Afrika Korps . This is greatly helped as it has a lot of superb , easy to follow Maps with photos of the desert areas , the terrain , and illustrations of the Tanks and Artillery used .
The book is an excellent guide to the Afrika Korps, and highly recommended .
I have always found any book by Kenneth Macksey to be well-written , fully researched , and above all VERY readable . The main strength of this edition of the Purnell's History of the Second World War series is that you are clearly able to follow the progress of the Battles of the Afrika Korps . This is greatly helped as it has a lot of superb , easy to follow Maps with photos of the desert areas , the terrain , and illustrations of the Tanks and Artillery used .
The book is an excellent guide to the Afrika Korps, and highly recommended .
June 27, 2015
This was an interesting book about the role of the Afrika Korps in the African Theatre during WWII. However, I was disappointed. The author was a military man but not a writer, and his descriptions of the military maneuvers tended to be dense and sometimes difficult to follow. The book does not stand alone well as an introduction to the Afrika Korps, and I think it was only my own previous background knowledge that allowed me to follow as much as I did.
September 28, 2024
I think Macksey does a great job of showcasing the Afrika Korps campaign without getting too swallowed up into the nitty-gritty of each battle. When I started out I wondered how this was just not going to turn into a Rommel biography of the African campaign but he did a great job of separating the two and focusing on the unit itself and their campaigns. The North African Theatre is such an interesting and unique side to WW2 with so many factors that other campaigns and theatres did not have to deal with so I appreciated getting a good look into that. Overall I enjoyed it but I would have preferred the maps to have been right at the forefront of each chapter as I was trying to picture certain parts in my head and did not realize until the end of the chapter itself that there was a map to accompany it. I eventually caught on but something I found kind of annoying during the first half of the book.
November 6, 2017
A very thorough blow by blow retelling of the African campaign, and especially Rommel.
It’s extremely technical but what I really struggled with was the geography. The author may be intimately familiar with every point of reference of North Africa but I’m not.
The way you’ll suddenly be reading about completely different places than just before, with no explanation of how they might relate to the previously named places is jarring.
It’s extremely technical but what I really struggled with was the geography. The author may be intimately familiar with every point of reference of North Africa but I’m not.
The way you’ll suddenly be reading about completely different places than just before, with no explanation of how they might relate to the previously named places is jarring.
October 9, 2021
An older book made valuable by an author who served in the war and understands the characters, strategies, tactics, and technologies employed by both sides. Loaded with priceless photographs and drawings of military vehicles and airplanes used in all the particular engagements in North Africa. This whole series of books is highly recommended. 4 stars.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews