User Reviews

One theater of World War II that is often ignored or played down is the war in North Africa. This installment of the always legendary series World at War goes into detail on what happened there, how difficult the fighting was, and how troops tried to deal with being in an area so desolate, barren and depressing. As Laurence Olivier says, the land was practically made for war, since it has no beautiful landmarks or countrysides to violate. The fighting in north africa begins shortly after Mussolini, Fascist dictator of Italy, declares war on France and England in summer 1940. Benito had already slaughtered countless people in Abyssinia (Ethiopia today) and essentially enslaved the Libyans. Now he wanted more in an effort to establish a modern Roman Empire. Despite British presence in Egypt, Mussolini deploys a quarter of a million italian soldiers into their neighbor, libya. For italy, it looks like it's going to be a cakewalk. The UK only has 30k soldiers in egypt, and after the italians start their attack, the brits fall back everywhere. The italians eventually come to the port of Sidi Barrani, but the british counterattack, manage to get behind the italian lines and subdue them. Hundreds of thousands of them are taken prisoner. In the process, the british push the italian army back so far they manage to secure an area the size of both france and their own country, as well as the ports of El Agheila and Benghazi. Hitler, observing his bumbling ally make a fool of himself, decides to come to Benito's rescue in winter 1941. The man Adolf sends to be commander of the German forces in africa was soon to be a legend and had already made a name for himself fighting in france the previous year: Erwin Rommel. Before Rommel even has all his forces under his command, he engages his anglo adversaries at El Agheila, and in just 2 weeks, pushes them back all the way to the egyptian border. Despite the british losing all the ground they had gained, one particular area became a huge thorn Rommel's side. The port town of Tobruk, defended by Australian forces, was badly desired by the germans as it could be used to ferry supplies from italy to Rommel's tanks fighting in the desert. Knowing he couldn't attack the city head on, Rommel got ready to pound it with artillery from a distance. The Luftwaffe joined in as well. Despite all this attacking, anglo forces simply brought in reinforcements from the sea and stunted Rommel's progress. Concurrently, the british navy dominated the Mediterranean, shooting up ships carrying Rommel's supplies. The formidable italian navy was unable to interfere after being crippled by british seaplanes at Taranto some time ago. Because Rommel couldn't get the fuel needed for his tanks, his forces couldn't advance any further into egypt that summer. Even worse, Tobruk was still firmly british. For the time being, the desert war was in deadlock. Meanwhile, german forces use the infamous 88 millimeter field gun made by Krupp to devastating effect. Originally made for anti-aircraft purposes, this weapon was to become one of the most feared german weapons of the entire war and was decimating british armor. Rommel's tank strategies were also superior to british ones. Eventually, Tobruk is saved from Rommel after his tanks once again run out of gas, and the british (now equipped with new, american made tanks) push him back to El Agheila, recapuring Benghazi in the process. However, the latter town changes hands yet again when Rommel counterattacks, and he pushes the british back almost to Tobruk. They manage to stop him at Gazala. In preparation for the following battle, the british lay mines everywhere and try to be defensive in order to halt the germans, but Rommel simply moves around the open flank to the right of their positions. After decisively crushing the british at Gazala, he advances on Tobruk and won't let it slip through his grasp this time. Due to neglect, the port's fortifications weren't as formidable as they used to be. Rommel eventually captures Tobruk, and a grateful Hitler promotes him to Field Marshal. Humiliated, the british retreat into egypt further than ever, eventually settling at a railway stop called El Alamein. The battle over it was to decide the fate of the war in north africa. Unlike previous locations, El Alamein didn't have an open flank to the south which Rommel could use to outmaneuver his enemy. Instead, it had a huge, sunken formation of quicksand impassable to vehicles. Rommel attacks, and is halted yet again. Churchill then replaces the current british commander in egypt with Bernard Montgomery. "Monty", as he was called, would make it his mission to make sure everyone he supervised was ready to fight. As Hitler shifts most of his focus to the war against Russia, the island of Malta is mercilessly pounded by the luftwaffe, but doesn't break. For Rommel, the advantages of desert fighting now start to work against him. The longer his tanks advanced, the longer and more overextended his supply line. Finally, the british confront Rommel at El Alamein. Rommel, frustrated that his troops were unable to destroy the british while they were bogged down in minefields, orders a counterattack. He gets flung back and suffers losses he can't really afford. After fighting what was essentially a first world war battle with ww2 weapons, Rommel tries to slip back to a better defensive position, but Hitler orders him not to flee. He does so anyway, and his force in north africa is now defunct. Quite a lengthy and complicated episode even for World at War, but this is only because Rommel was such a good commander that he was able to hold out for so long. People often ask why germany lost the war, but what they should really ask is how they managed to hold off the world for 5 years. Speaking of which, Rommel is for some reason held in very high regard today, even among people whose ancestors fought against him. People often act like he was a tragic figure who served Hitler only because he was ordered to, and was only motivated by love of his country. In other words, he wasn't your average nazi. Rommel would also later die after he was forced to commit suicide for being implicated in an attempt on Hitler's life. Overall, this episode of World at War gets an automatic 10 from me. It contains great combat footage, interviews, and even shows how it was so hot in the desert that you could fry eggs on tank armor. You're alone with the universe in an environment like that.

Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini opens "The Desert: North Africa (1940-1943)" with his June 1940 declaration of war on Britain and France and his ambitions to expand the Italian empire in North Africa; however, Italy soon fades from this eighth episode of "The World at War," the outstanding British documentary series overseen by producer Jeremy Isaacs in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, as the Desert War soon becomes the primary combat arena between Britain and Nazi Germany, Italy's Axis partner.

Mussolini might have seized power first, in 1922, but Italy was always the weak sister compared to Germany and Japan, the other two major Axis Powers, despite Italy's prewar land grabs in Albania and Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) while solidifying its control over Libya. Envious of Adolf Hitler's early successes, vain, buffoonish Mussolini admitted," I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought."

Seeking to drive east across British-controlled Egypt to seize the Suez Canal, Italy, with 236,000 troops, attacked a British force of just 36,000 troops under the overall command of General Archibald Wavell in September 1940 and advanced sixty miles into Egypt, only to be counterattacked in December 1940 by Western Desert Force commander General Richard O'Connor, who pushed the Italians well back into Libya in a rout that saw the surrender of 138,000 Italian and Libyan troops.

However, as interviewees O'Connor and military intelligence officer Francis de Guingand both aver, Britain could have pushed onto Tripoli, Libya's capital, had British Prime Minister Winston Churchill not ordered key military units to be sent to defend Greece from an eventual German invasion. This strategic gaffe coincided with the February 1941 arrival of the German "Afrika Korps," commanded by the legendary General Erwin Rommel, sent by Hitler to buttress Mussolini's forces as interviewee Siegfried Westphal, Rommel's chief of staff, insists there was no other grand design such as seizing the Suez Canal.

Thus writer-producer Peter Batty sets the stage for the heart of his absorbing, incisive narrative that chronicles seesaw campaigns with British and German forces shifting the front line east and west dramatically--the Libyan port city of Benghazi changed hands five times--as "The Desert," largely shorn of geopolitical and sociological impacts, is the first "World at War" episode dedicated primarily to military history.

Moreover, augmented by the trove of stark, vivid archival footage adroitly assembled by editor Beryl Wilkins, "The Desert" vividly illustrates the plight of both British and German troops who experienced the same "peculiar" geographical conditions; as narrator Laurence Olivier intones, "For many, the desert war was a private war, the last to retain any pretense of chivalry." Both sides endured hazards beyond combat: incessant flies, prevalent dysentery, intense sandstorms that could engulf men simply visiting the latrine, and, above all, the unrelenting heat.

Using craft and subterfuge, Rommel quickly gains the upper hand, pushing the British back into Egypt again although they retain the Libyan port town of Tobruk that resisted the Germans' siege and remained a bugbear for Rommel, desperate for a shorter supply line. Indeed, in the barren, inhospitable desert, every resource was crucial.

However, the British enjoyed two great advantages. One was rest and replenishment available in nearby Cairo while their own supply convoys traversing the Mediterranean Sea were relatively unharmed; moreover, because Malta was a British colony, its strategic location enabled the British to wreak havoc on German and Italian convoys, with just one of every four Axis ships actually reaching North Africa. Belatedly, the Axis tried to bomb Malta into submission but the Maltese persevered against the heaviest bombing of the war. (Not mentioned is that Malta was awarded the George Cross for valor.)

The second great British advantage was its eventual air superiority over the Western Desert; however, on the ground the Germans held the upper hand. A brilliant and daring armored-warfare tactician, as British armored division commander Allan Harding acknowledges, Rommel adapted his experience in France to the expansive desert while enjoying superior weaponry including the deadly Krupp-manufactured 88-millimeter artillery gun. Saddled with inferior weaponry, the British also weathered leadership difficulties. With Wavell relieved and O'Connor captured, Churchill made a number of appointments before General Bernard Montgomery proved his mettle.

Although the British again drove Axis forces westward into Libya, Churchill again deprived the newly-rechristened Eighth Army of crucial units, this time deployed to a quixotic defense of Singapore in the Far East, with de Guingand labeling this another strategic debacle as Rommel again pushed eastward, this time taking Tobruk, and forcing the British to retreat to the railway stop of El Alamein on the edge of the Nile Delta.

The Second Battle of El Alamein, fought in October-November 1942, became the first great turning point of the European-North African theater of World War Two, with the strategic blunder this time on Germany as Hitler, fixated on his falling fortunes against the Soviet Union, never considered the North African campaign to be more than secondary despite his admiration for Rommel.

As stark, unforgiving, and moving as the Western Desert it depicts in sometimes unforgettable archival footage, "The Desert" remains an eloquent yet bracing portrait of the fighting men on both sides of the North African battle lines, with the closing footage of tombstones in an expansive desert cemetery a sobering reminder of the war's seemingly endless sacrifices.

REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?