Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West (Annotated Version)

Description

This edition of Northwest Africa, Volume II, includes:

• A new Introduction by Jim Pitrat giving the historical context

• A Note on This Edition on the two-volume division of Howe’s history

• A new index for this volume

“For the U.S. Army,” George F. Howe wrote, “the operations in Northwest Africa were of inestimable value in making it a far more efficient fighting force.”

This volume begins where the race for Tunis stopped, with an Axis bridgehead holding Tunisia at the end of 1942. It follows the Tunisian campaign from the Casablanca decisions of January 1943 to the Axis surrender on 13 May, through the Eastern Dorsal passes, Sidi Bou Zid, Kasserine Pass, Mareth, El Guettar, Fondouk, Hill 609 and the final drive on Bizerte and Tunis. The last week brought some 275,000 prisoners into Allied custody.

Howe’s official history rests on Allied Force Headquarters records, American unit reports and captured German war diaries. He judges that the Axis losses, added to Stalingrad, left the Axis unable to take the initiative except for local operations.

First published in 1957 by the Army’s Office of the Chief of Military History, the history is in the public domain. This Edge Weaver Legacy edition divides Howe’s single volume into two and adds new material: an Introduction by Jim Pitrat, A Note on This Edition, new 8.5 x 11 typesetting and an index for this volume. Howe’s text, notes, Appendixes A–B and Note on Sources are as first published, with 21 original maps.

Volume II of Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, following Volume I, Operation TORCH.