Eighth Army: The Triumphant Desert Army That Held the Axis at Bay from North Africa to the Alps, 1939-1945 (review)

"When this war is over, it will be enough for a man to say, 'I marched and fought with the Desert Army.'" Churchill thus ensured the immortality of Eighth Army when he spoke to its men following the victory at El Alamein. Neillands sets out to tell the story of "Eighth Army as a whole and . . . put it in the context of the campaigns in which it was engaged" (p. xxvii). In this task he succeeds. Much has been written about Eighth Army, but Robin Neillands provides us with a very readable account which takes us from the start of the Western Desert Campaign in 1940 through to the ultimate victory over Hitler's Germany in May 1945. Experts will not find much that is new, but Neillands is an accomplished writer whose treatment of the topic is masterful.

Neillands is at his best early on when the story of Eighth Army is the focus of operations in North Africa. The book contains a strong narrative voice which chronicles the creation, training, and early battles of Eighth Army and its predecessors. Interspersed with the text are frequent personal accounts of the battles which thoroughly enrich the story. Neillands has interviewed and corresponded with dozens of veterans and their words are frequently used to carry the narrative.

The book begins to lose some of its focus when operations commence against Sicily and Italy. The story of Eighth Army is still ably told, but the detail and focus of the earlier chapters is lost as the campaign in which the army is involved grows larger. This first become apparent in the chapter on Sicily. For the invasion, Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army was partnered with George Patton's Seventh Army. Neillands begins to concentrate more on the conduct of the war at a higher level and loses the strong focus on the battlefield which characterized his earlier chapters. When Eighth Army's XIII Corps becomes bogged down while trying to force a passage between Mount Etna and the coast, the focus of operations shifts to XXX Corps and 1st Canadian Infantry Division which are sent to flank Etna to the west. This shift is given cursory attention by Neillands. His only comment is that "the Canadians do not appear to have been well handled in these battles" (p. 232). This completely ignores the role played by the Canadians in breaking the strong German defensive lines west of Etna. In particular, the failure to tell the story of the night assault by the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment up the sheer cliff at Assoro, one of the most heroic in the entire campaign, is particularly odd.

The complexity of the Italian Campaign interferes with the clear narrative Neillands establishes early in the book. It is impossible to tell the story of Eighth Army without reference to the overall context of the events in Italy. The chapters on Cassino and Rome give as much space to discussing the wrangling of Harold Alexander and Mark Clark as is devoted to the battles being fought by the units of Eighth Army. This is unfortunate as Neillands has little that is new to say about the higher conduct of the war, while his accounts of the individual soldiers are most enlightening.

Neillands has written a highly readable account of Eighth Army. His book is at its best when Eighth Army is fighting alone in the desert. This allows the narrative to focus on the battles fought by Eighth Army and the men who took part. The story in the second half of the book becomes more complex as Eighth Army becomes part of a coalition. There is no doubt that the higher conduct of the war is an important part of the story, but Neillands's...