Alamein

As a battle, El Alamein was a straightforward and resounding victory for the Allies against Rommel’s Afrika Korps and the Axis forces. Yet no military engagement of the Second World War has a more contested legacy – one that has prompted more than 300 books. Simon Ball’s superb study stands head and shoulders above the field, chronicling and evaluating a victory that ranks alongside Stalingrad and D-Day in the British psyche. Alamein is the fourth book in the Folio Society’s Great Battles series, following acclaimed studies of Waterloo, Thermopylae and Culloden. Under the editorial eye of military historian Hew Strachan, the series provides incisive, provocative accounts of the world’s most famous battles, written by acknowledged experts. Simon Ball deftly unpicks the battle and its cultural afterlife, drawing on an immense breadth of different sources. There is graphic testimony from soldiers and prisoners of war on both sides – many among them talented writers – alongside the pronouncements of generals, statesmen, official propagandists and armchair theorists, plus analysis of the vast number of novels and films inspired by the battle. Readable and engaging, Alamein shows how different factions have shaped the popular narrative of the Desert War – often using it to push their own agendas, shore up reputations and pursue private battles.