On the night of October 23, 1942, nearly a thousand guns from British batteries opened fire on the German positions just west of the small Egyptian railway depot of El Alamein. Over the next few weeks, infantry and armored divisions from Britain and the Commonwealth reversed the forward progress of Germany's Afrika Korps. Fought under harsh conditions, where men and tanks were challenged by both dense minefields and the desert landscape, the Battle of El Alamein marked the turning point in the war against Hitler's Germany. Directed by the newly appointed General Bernard "Monty" Montgomery, the British forces ultimately pushed the legendary Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his troops back into Tunisia to their final defeat in mid-1943.
Fred Majdalany's acclaimed account puts the battle into context and perspective, explaining in engaging prose both the significance of the victory for the British war effort and the complexities of a wide-open desert battle that pitched tanks, aircraft, and men against each other. The Battle of El Alamein is among the most significant battles of the twentieth century and involves two of the finest tacticians of World War II; understanding its logistics and strategy is of paramount importance for the student of military history.

He stared desperately into the dark trying to force his eyes to see, so that they ached more than ever . . . He sensed that the eyes of men were drilling into the back of his neck, so that it felt prickly. Being lost when you are the leader is the worst thing of all. He hated them because he was lost . . . Rage and despair were welling up inside him . . . 1943, the North African desert. Major Tim Sheldon, an exhausted and battle-weary infantry officer, is asked to carry out a futile and unexpected patrol mission. He'd been on many patrols, but this was to be the longest and most dangerous of all. Fred Majdalany's superb novel of the men who fought in the North African campaign puts this so-called minor mission at center stage, as over the course of the day and during the patrol itself, Sheldon looks back on his time as a soldier, considers his future, and contemplates the meaning of fear.