2008-02-26 A must have! Excellent book!

This is the first volume of the British Official History covering the fighting by British and Allied forces in the Mediterranean, East Africa and the Middle East.

The volume covers not only the military side of this campaign but the political and logistical sides too further increasing our understanding of the situation the British and allied forces were in when Italy went to war with Britain and Commonwealth.

While the authors freely admit the cannot go into minute detail when describing the battles and operations, as one would find in a book dedicated to that particular event, hey do provide an excellent coverage of the fighting.

There are a few flaws with this book and all of the Official Histories, since they were originally published in the decades following the war. Where intelligence has been gathered and from hindsight we know it was via Ultra or other services it is glossed over and how this information was gathered is not discussed. While the book is full of maps, one does feel sometimes they are not 100% helpful and a few more would have been nice.

Regardless of the last paragraph this is an excellent book and a must buy for anyone interested in studying or researching the war in this theatre.