Bierman and Smith are, respectively, ex-BBC and ex-Observer
correspondents currently based in Cyprus; they co-authored Fire in the Night, a biography of Orde Wingate. Despite its U.S. title (the book goes by a different title in the U.K.), their popular account covers the entire three-year North African campaign. The descriptions of the battles are well-crafted and easily accessible to the nonspecialist. The account of the battle of Alamein itself is only slightly more than 50 pages long, but the British defense against Axis tanks at "Snipe" (a code name for a crucial position) was one of its turning points, and is well described here. Major and minor personalities and fighting units come to life, among them the British Special Interrogation Group (a forerunner of the special forces) and the Axis spy Laszlo Almasy, whose exploits were very loosely adapted for the novel and film The English Patient. The authors' treatment of well-known figures, however, is fairly uncritical, especially when dealing with Montgomery, who looms large at Alamein. The book follows Axis forces as they retreat to Tunisia; British forces, along with American forces that had landed in Algeria and Morocco in November, fight them there together until their surrender in May 1943. (On sale Nov. 11)
