An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943

by Rick Atkinson

For among mortal powers, only imagination can bring back the dead.

In September 1939, the U.S. Army had ranked seventeenth in the world in size and combat power, just behind Romania.

Only seers or purblind optimists could guess that these portents foreshadowed victory. The Allies were not yet winning, but they were about to begin winning. Night would end, the tide would turn, and on that turning tide an army would wash ashore in Africa, ready to right a world gone wrong. Part One