08-30-2026, 01:54 PM
Alamein by Jon Latimer
Expect quite a few books about the early stages of the war in the Western Desert during World War 2. I'm trying to get a fuller picture of what happened there in the place my grandfather served.
To that end, Alamein. It's one of those battles I heard about but didn't know quite what it was about. Something Rommel. Something Montgomery. As far as the British go, the 2nd battle of El Alamein is where the war turned around for them. As Churchill said, "Before El Alamein, we hadn't won a battle. After El, Alamein, we never lost a battle" El Alamein war pretty much Commonwealth Affair, as England gathered in all her subjects and put them between the Italians and the Germans and the Suez Canal.
The book goes into great detail about every corp, division, brigade and battalion and their movements during the 11 days of the battle. I might hazard a guess there was too much detail. Latimer talks about places in the desert that I've never heard of and probably won't remember in a few weeks. The cast of characters is huge and a lot of them get a name check. Well, there were about 200,000 men duking it out in the sand. That calls for a lot of names. Latimer doesn't just talk about Big Boys, he gives snippets of what Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants were doing as well. It was mostly dying. That's pretty much what everybody was doing.
A lot of the book is just much in my head, but I do think I know a lot more of the battle when I started. I got some starts and finishes. A few of places might stick. And my Grandfather's 64th Fighter Group was mentioned twice. Still trying to answer the question of how they ended up there.
Expect quite a few books about the early stages of the war in the Western Desert during World War 2. I'm trying to get a fuller picture of what happened there in the place my grandfather served.
To that end, Alamein. It's one of those battles I heard about but didn't know quite what it was about. Something Rommel. Something Montgomery. As far as the British go, the 2nd battle of El Alamein is where the war turned around for them. As Churchill said, "Before El Alamein, we hadn't won a battle. After El, Alamein, we never lost a battle" El Alamein war pretty much Commonwealth Affair, as England gathered in all her subjects and put them between the Italians and the Germans and the Suez Canal.
The book goes into great detail about every corp, division, brigade and battalion and their movements during the 11 days of the battle. I might hazard a guess there was too much detail. Latimer talks about places in the desert that I've never heard of and probably won't remember in a few weeks. The cast of characters is huge and a lot of them get a name check. Well, there were about 200,000 men duking it out in the sand. That calls for a lot of names. Latimer doesn't just talk about Big Boys, he gives snippets of what Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants were doing as well. It was mostly dying. That's pretty much what everybody was doing.
A lot of the book is just much in my head, but I do think I know a lot more of the battle when I started. I got some starts and finishes. A few of places might stick. And my Grandfather's 64th Fighter Group was mentioned twice. Still trying to answer the question of how they ended up there.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm