Air War Over Russia by Andrew Brookes

Although, with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the British victory at El-Alamein was one of the turning points of the war, just as Stalingrad was on the Eastern Front, war in the desert was by no means concluded. The rapid German advance in the period before El-Alamein was seriously to threaten the Allied position in Egypt and the all-important Suez Canal; little seemed capable of holding the German assault and, if the Axis forces had not been regarded by their command as representing a sideshow and therefore denied the necessary reinforcements, the history of the Desert War could have been very different. Under Rommel, the Germans had proved themselves capable of decisive military strikes that all but eradicated Allied power in North Africa. Ultimately, however, the lack of reinforcements and the long logistical routes of resupply fundamentally undermined Rommel's position and, when faced by war on two fronts after Operation Torch, the German and Italian position proved hopeless, with some 150,000 men surrendering the mid-1943. For all military historians, the new 'Blitzkrieg' series will be an essential addition to their library, explaining as it does how the various stages by which the strategy evolved during the war. Andrew Brookes lives in London and now works as Aerospace Analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Prior to this he was a serving officer with the Royal Air Force, reaching the rank of Wing Commander. He is the author of a number of highly successful books for Ian Allan Publishing, including, most recently, Destination Disaster, which was published in the autumn of 2002 and Air War over Italy.