Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps (Stackpole Military History Series)

This book is essentially volume two of Samuel W. Mitcham Jr.'s digest of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps' campaign in the North African Desert War from the aftermath of Operation Crusader to it's defeat at the hands of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at El Alamein and the retreat to the Tunisian bridgehead. Mitcham relates the campaign through the eyes of Rommel. Mitcham has conducted a focused and thorough research relying on key participant's writings and the works of other preeminent historians and biographers of Rommel. The result is a decent and lucid history. Mitcham's first volume begins with Rommel's arrival and concludes with the Afrika Korps' retreat after Operation Crusader. Triumphant Fox: Erwin Rommel and the Rise of the Afrika Korps (Stackpole Military History Series) . I recommend from Osprey Publishing these three titles  Operation Crusader 1941: Rommel in Retreat (Campaign)   Gazala 1942: Rommel's greatest victory (Campaign)  and  El Alamein 1942: The Turning of the Tide (Campaign) . Also by Mitcham,  Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-42 (Stackpole Military History Series) . For the "endgame" in Tunisia, I recommend  Exit Rommel: The Tunisian Campaign, 1942-43 (Stackpole Military History)  by Bruce Watson.

This is the best book that I have read on Rommel and the Afrika Korps so far. The entire campaign of the Afrika Korps from it's birth to it's death is explained in great detail, describing all of the major battles. Rommel's genius at maneuver warfare is shown, and describes how a far smaller, less equipped force was able to defeat a numerically superior opponent time and time again. Reading about the battles of Tobruk and El Alamein will transport the reader to the deserts of North Africa. Great Book.

I purchased this book to learn more about Rommel and World War Two in Africa, unfortunatly due to terrible formating and font issues I can't read the book on my iPhone which is my only ereader (I hoped that it might be ok on the Kindle if I ever get one). Then after dicovering the problem and looking for a way to fix it I found the review by Thomas L. Evans: "the font used is very hard on the eyes and does not display well on my Kindle DX. In fact it causes so must eye strain I had to give up and did not complete the book." and I have to agree completely.So now I know the problem isn't limited to me or the iPhone, I have requested my money back because this product is defective though I doubt Amazon will be honorable enough to issue a refund. I cannot recommend you buy this ebook.

Very basic but with some good information and a nice read. I don't refer to it as much as my other books, as there isn't really anything new here, but still it is worthwhile for your collection. I cannot call it a must have. Pictures are not much use for modelers.

Very good read.

This book is a gritty look at the war between the Allies and Germans in the Mid-East during WWII. You'll read about soldier's hardships and triumphs in a campaign that would snuff the life out of an ordinary man.

All was Great! It arrived in good condition and speedily. I will very much enjoy this work as I prepare to write my novel.

This volume is a well-done work on Rommel and the Afrika Korps from late 1941 to Tunisia. It is commendable for its rather in-depth biographic information on all of the various commanders of the Afrika Korps, Panzergruppe Afrika and Panzerarmeee Afrika. It is a good study of Rommel himself and addresses some of his weak points as well as his strong points. It is also a detailed narrative of the combat operations of the Afrika Korps/Panzergruppe/Panzerarmee Afrika. Overall, it is a well-researched and well told account of the Rommel and the German forces in the desert, as well as providing more than decent coverage of British/Commonwealth actions during the timeframe covered. It certainly portrays Auchinleck in a much more favorable and probably accurate light than do many other works dealing with the desert war. On the negative side, Mitcham seems to be under the misconception that the Afrika Korps consisted of only the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, as he treats the 90th Light as a separate entity, when it was in fact part of the DAK. Although this volume is marginally better than his previous volume, there remains the perennial almost consistent negative portrayal of the Italians: it seems to be an obsession with Mitcham (as well as with many other British and German authors) to describe the Italians as always "retreating in panic" or being "panic-stricken", or "terrified", while ascribing no such behavior to Germans and British who retreat. He seems to have included only one Italian source (Caccia-Dominioni) who was actually in the desert, and at that, only footnotes him once. Misspellings of Italian names are common. Mitcham's grasp of, or depiction of, the supply situation seems to be a bit muddled. Basically, the Italians were responsible for supplying all of the Axis forces, and for the most part, except for the cherry-picked instances which Mitcham uses to put blame on the Italians or deprecate their performance, the Italian Navy did an admirable job of getting the needed supplies to North Africa most of the time. It is not always clear when Mitcham refers to equipment available or to losses if they refer to the combined Italo-German forces or to the German forces alone. There is a subtle inference that the Italians almost always either performed badly, were unwilling to fight, surrendered at the earliest opportunity, or "fled in panic". It is interesting to observe that, as a matter of fact, it was the Germans who, following Alamein, managed to disengage and to flee westward because of their mobility, leaving the Italians to fend for themselves. To be fair, Mitcham at least hints at the stand of the Ariete armored division on 4 November which, as ordered by Rommel, made a last-ditch stand against the British in order to buy the Germans more time to turn tail. Of course, one has to be able to consult and read Italian sources, not just a couple of translated works, in order to get a different slant on the war in the desert and the Italian contribution, which was far larger than the German contribution, to the campaigning.

Easy to read, well written and founded.Minus (as there has always to be at least one ;-))-No "early" desert war (book starts with the 2nd DAK Cirenaica sweep), no "late" desert war (Tunisia), but yes, for that there are 2 other books :P-There is some glorification/romanticism of the desert war (but I guess the same goes for many sources and war books), nevertheless that will certainly please a certain kind of the readers... ;)