“It was a combination of weight of arms and the grim determination of the men on the ground as well as air power that brought victory to the British”, writes historian James Holland in his book about The Desert War in the Ladybird Expert series.

The renowned author starts his book with an observation about the lack of enthusiasm among the crowd massed on the square facing the Palazzo Venezia when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on June 10, 1940. Italians were not fervent about fighting alongside the Germans. The feeling would have fateful consequences in the fight for the Mediterranean.

In October 1940, the Duce decided to invade Greece, probably motivated by the desire to prove his worth to his German ally. It was a bad decision that forced Hitler’s hand to send troops to the Mediterranean theatre. The Führer became obsessed with his southern flank and devoted considerable resources to beef it up.

Along the way, the master of the Third Reich made the crucial mistake of invading Crete in May 1941, rather than focusing on Malta, which was essential to maintain the British lifeline on the theatre. German Field Marshal “Smiling Albert” Kesselring understood that the victor would be the side who “won the battle of supplies”. His boss should have listened to him.

Ensuring the constant flow of supplies and thwarting the lines of the enemy was therefore the order of the day for both camps.

But it was not the only challenge.

If the morale of the Italian soldiers was low, Allied troops didn’t fare much better. Upon their appointments in the Mediterranean theatre, General Sir Harold Alexander and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery would remedy it. Before their respective appointments in North Africa, the soon-to-be-famous SAS had been founded. Coupled with their embrace of desert life, the derring-do actions of its members – who are mentioned in passing in the book – certainly went a long way in boosting the morale of His Majesty’s Forces.

In my previous review about the Yom Kippur War, I quoted retired Israeli Brigadier-General Michael Herzog who wrote that “The training and skill of the soldier, his motivation, the quality of the chain of command, initiative, courage and perseverance all underlie the War’s result far more than any weapons. Even in the era of technology, man still stands at the center of the picture.” That timeless truth observed in 1973 applied in the sands of North Africa three decades earlier.

In the public consciousness, The Desert War, unfortunately, attracts much less attention than iconic episodes like the ones surrounding D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge for example, but it is important to be aware that more Axis troops were taken prisoners at the Battle of Medjerda, in Tunisia, during which Allied soldiers “fought against highly disciplined German troops” in May 1943 than at the battle of “Stalingrad in February of that year”.

Once again, James Holland enriches the knowledge of World War II enthusiasts with concise and engaging prose, while providing crucial information to better contextualize the war in Africa in the bigger picture of the conflict.

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James Holland, The Desert War, London, London, Ladybird Books Ltd. (Penguin Random House Canada), 2018, 56 pages.