First Victory: Britain's Forgotten Struggle in the Middle East, 1941

by Robert Lyman

It is commonly held that Montgomery's 1942 victory at El Alamein was the turning point in Britain's fortunes during the Second World War - that it was 'the end of the beginning' (Churchill). However, Robert Lyman reveals here how in the summer of 1941, beleaguered British forces put together a series of largely forgotten victories in Iraq, Syria and Iran that secured crucial supplies of oil and curbed dangerous German expansion in the region. It's an exciting story of victories achieved against the odds - fraught negotiations between London, Cairo and New Delhi, hastily assembled troops and campaigns fought and won in harsh desert conditions. The siege of the RAF base at Lake Habbaniya in Iraq is a brilliant example of this, and forms one of the most exciting passages in the book. 1941 could have been the year in which Britain lost the war - Lyman reveals here how close we came.

Genres: World War II, History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

By birth a New Zealander, I was educated in Australia and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After a 20-year career in the British Army I turned my hand to writing, my PhD being published in 2004 as 'Slim, Master of War, a military biography of arguably Britain's greatest field commander of WW2.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

I am a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for young learners in Nagaland.

Reviews

[Nishant Pappireddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and extremely detailed account of how Britain secured the Middle East during WW2.