A compelling new history of a crucial turning point in the Second World War which also provides a detailed picture of the British Army at a critical stage in its fight against Hitler's Germany. In late June 1942, the dispirited and defeated British Eighth Army was pouring back towards the tiny railway halt of El Alamein in the western desert of Egypt. Tobruk had fallen and Eighth Army had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika. Yet just five months later, the famous bombardment opened the Eighth Army's own offensive which destroyed the Axis threat to Egypt. Explanations for the remarkable change of fortune have generally been sought in the abrasive personality of the new army commander Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery. But as Niall Barr shows in this new interpretation, based on extensive original research, the long running controversies surrounding the commanders of Eighth Army - Generals Auchinleck and Montgomery - and that of their legendary opponent, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, have often been allowed to obscure the true nature of the Alamein campaign. This book is the story of how an army learnt from its mistakes. the Eighth Army transform itself from a tactically inept collection of units into a battle-winning force. Pendulum of War explores how the Eighth Army learnt from bitter experience to develop tactical and operational methods that eventually mastered the veterans of Rommel's Afrika Korps and provides a vivid and fresh perspective on the fighting at El Alamein from the early desperate days of July to the final costly victory in November.

An illuminating study of the British veterans' movement, which explains how the British Legion became a national institution In the years following World War I, the British Legion became a symbol for service, tradition, and stability in British life. In the war's aftermath, many veterans' organizations on the continent became violently politicized. However, the competing groups in Britain came together in 1921 to form the unified and overtly non-political British Legion. Its mission and identity was founded upon its members' experience of the Great War. The Legion's belief that the comradeship of the trenches could transcend all barriers of rank and class was a reflection of the starting changes stirred by the Great War. Instead of succumbing to bitterness and alienation, the British Legion became a positive social force in the 1920s. Based on extensive original research, this is the first modern work to take an objective and analytical view of the British Legion. By examining each major facet of the British Legion in turn, Barr draws a convincing picture of this organisation that became a national institution. and work for peace, the British Legion became part of the fabric of British life and exerted a powerful and profound influence upon British society and politics. A better understanding of the legion and its social impact fills a real gap in our understanding of British life and society during the inter-war years. Assesses the influence of the British Legion on UK society between the wars Compares the British veterans' organisations to their more politicised continental counterparts