This is not just a dry recitation of the facts surrounding the campaign in North Africa, this is a full blown Cornelius-Ryan-esque portrayal of the US Army's trials and travails, from TORCH to final victory. Few authors tend to look beyond the stories of their own nationality; Atkinson has very masterfully worked in the British, French and German sides of the story as well. Historical figures are treated as characters in a drama rather than as simple names to be recited; dozens of commanders - many only briefly touched on elsewhere in the historical record - are fleshed out and brought to life with vivid descriptions.

Atkinson has a command of the English language that most writers only dream of, and summons the correct words from a very rich vocabulary eminently suited to getting his points across.

This is a detailed, and yet very, very entertaining, treatment of a topic that has not seen a lot of study in recent years, or perhaps even at all, beyond the official histories and the biographies of the notables involved (such as Farago's book on Patton, which did mention in detail Patton's North African experiences).

Only shortcoming might be the lack of detailed footnotes, but I personally don't think this detracts at all from the presentation. This is certainly not a textbook, though one might be forgiven for turning to it as a valuable reference in addition to being an excellent and engrossing read.

A page turner and in a class of its own.