El Alamein: Ultra and the three battles

by Alexander McKee

A study of the three battles of Alamein and the offensive that led up to the 1942 victory.

Genres: Military History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Alexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.

Reviews

[erel gilboa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is not about ultra but about the fights in north africa and the Mediterranean with remarks of the memoirs of the author. Except gossip about the UK commanders in north africa there are no insights. The only interesting parts are quotes from British and Germans who fought in the north africa campaigns, Rommel's and the British. After finishing reading it I understood it was a waste of time.

[Tricia Bagley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jumpy

As I did not read it’s clear through in say 2 to 4 sessions. I considered it jumpy back & fro.
The injection of personal accounts which was great often confused me, unless I backed up, took maybe a week or so to read it through.
Final though probably the best I have seen in my scatter reading of ww2. Good I guess “local knowledge” refers to Rommel.

[Andrew B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing.

The book suffers from scattershot presentation and never lives up to its title. Ultra is only mentioned in passing. Basically, it's a cobbled together collection of firsthand accounts with minimal structure.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting, thought it would be detailed blow by blow account but very much a mish mash , almost like several short books have been edited into 1 , still none the wiser about the events of the battle , glad it only cost 99p

[Grant McDuling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an interesting look behind the scenes of one of the most decisive phases of World War Two. It highlights just how chaotic the first few years of the war were. I found the first hand experiences of those where were there fascinating.

[Martin Samuels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and written with an engaging and personal style. That said, I was surprised at how limited the analysis was of the use and application of the Ultra intelligence. It was also a little frustrating that many of the useful quotes were not clearly linked to sources. Nonetheless, a good read and a useful introduction to the topic.