Forgotten Voices Desert Victory

Jan 11, 2025 11:00 AM

Author:Julian Thompson,Imperial War Museum

‘Between Friday and Monday we never slept at all. Everyone’s face was one mass of sand … The guns were so hot, all the paint had gone’ Bombardier Ray Ellis

Had the Allies lost in North Africa, Rommel’s Afrika Korps would have swept through the Middle East, cutting the vital supply line through the Suez Canal to Australia and India, and taking the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Britain would have been isolated, without oil, and unable to fight.

These historic battles of 1940–1943 were fought over vast distances on rugged terrain, with supply lines often stretched to breaking point. It was here that David Stirling formed the SAS to perform audacious sabotage missions, and the Long Range Desert Group collected intelligence from behind enemy lines.

This is the story of the Allies’ first victory against Hitler’s army, told in the voices of the men who were there, which proved that the seemingly unstoppable Germans could be beaten.

Reviews

The Forgotten Voices series...show[s] a completely different side to conflicts...all the more powerful for the ordinary nature of the orators

—— Telegraph

First hand testimonies from the veterans of the heat and dust vividly conveys the physical hardships and resilient spirit of these sometimes overlooked soldiers, and this is a valuable addition to an increasingly important archive

—— Daily Mail

A lively study of neighbourly relations.

—— Philippa Stockley , Sunday Telegraph

A fine book packed with generosity, rivalry, misbehaviour, snobbery, love, murder and politics.

—— Alistair Mabbott , The Herald

I enjoyed Cockayne's book immediately

—— Rebecca Armstrong , Independent

This curtain-twitching account is bottom-up history at its breezy best

—— Michael Kerrigan , Scotsman

A great read

—— Penelope Lively , Spectator

An entirely delightful history of neighbour relations since the Middle Ages

—— Rupert Uloth , Country Life

A brisk but impressively comprehensive survey.

—— Reader's Digest

A very detailed historical survey of the upside and the downside of neighbouring since about 1300.

—— Peter Lewis , Daily Mail

A great insight into how our homes and communities have grown and changed.

—— Kate Whiting , PA syndicated review - Manchester Evening News

Original, humorously historical and wittily anecdotal.

—— Saga Magazine

This intriguing social history charts the concept of neighbours through British history in thorough detail

—— Big Issue in the North

Informative but fun, with an important message about society, Cockayne’s history is a human one, with all the heartache and joy that entails

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

This lively social history documents nine centuries of disputes, noise levels, wartime camaraderie and carparking issues. Fascinating

—— The Lady

Relishable

—— Independent

The avowed aim of this fascinating history of neighbours is to explore the delicate balance between people’s determination to protect their privacy and their simultaneous wish to cultivate contact with those who live close by

—— Good Book Guide

Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia

—— Free Press Journal

A vital, nuanced argument ... prodigious

—— Mint

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