Together We Stand

by James Holland

Vigorous account of the war in the North African desert, in which, perhaps improbably, the Allies emerged victorious. For the first two years of the conflict, Commonwealth and Free French forces fought against Rommel’s Afrika Korps alone. In almost every way, they were the lesser force. As British historian Holland (Fortress Malta, not reviewed) writes, the differences came mostly in military organization. German soldiers were trained, for instance, to act independently, and the lowliest private was expected to be able to take command as the situation required; British soldiers, by contrast, were required to wait for orders on high before taking action. Rommel’s forces were highly mobile and highly coordinated, while the British divisions tended to be unwieldy. And German arms, such as the 88mm cannon and the Mark IV tank, were superior to their British counterparts (“one looks solid, strong and formidable,” Holland writes, “the other lightweight and ineffective”). The American arrival