Birth of an Army [antikvár]

PREFAGE Tunisia is a European country. Its mountains, valleys and bead-lands are üke southern Francé, Italy or the Balkans. An army fight-ing there has to solve every problem that would have to be faced in Europe, wherever there are hills and sea, mud and dust, pastures and cornlands, farms and villages. That is why the disappointment of our failure to capture Tunis and Bizerta in November, 1942, became a blessing. We were given six months to build a great allied army, to test it in the hardest battles, to make mistakes while we had still time to learn from them. This is the story of the building, the mistakes, and the triumphs that came when we had learned the lesson. I have written very briefly about the Eighth Army's campaign in Southern Tunisia, because that was not part of the European theme. It was the ending of the desert war, and it can be much better deseribed by those who saw it for themselves. As in "We Landed at Dawn", I have given fictitious names to officers and men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, with the exception of Major Anderson, whose Victoria Gross fight on Longstop Hill is known to everybody. While events are so close, you can write much more freely about your friends if you allow them that much privacy. Otherwise actions are again deseribed as I saw them, or as they were explained to me by intelligence officers in the field. I should like, in particular, to thank the intelligence staíF of the Army Corps Headquarters whom we visited most frequently, and who spared no trouble, even at the busiest and most anxious times, to make sure that we knew all that was happening, not only in their own area, but everywhere along the front. I am alsó grateful to the Editor of the London Daily Herald, whom I represented as War Correspondent in Tunisia, and who made it possible for me to write this book. A. B. Austin Jane 16 thy 1943. P.S.—In the few weeks since this book was finished, Sicily has been invaded, Mussolini has resigned, Italy is seeking peace, and the people of Germany know for certain that they cannot win this war. None of these things would have happened this year if the enemy had been able to hold Tunisia, as he planned, until August. If final victory comes earlier than we had dared to hope, we shall owe it to the men who stormed Longstop Hill, broke the Bizerta barrier, and burst through to Tunis. A. B. A.