RETREAT TO VICTORY. A SPRINGBOK'S DIARY IN NORTH AFRICA: IN SOUTH AFRICA

  (Johannesburg: Ashanti Publishing, 1991) 1874800243, 1991. 8vo; Very good, as new original pale boards; As new dustwrapper; pictorial endpapers; pp. xiv + 301, incl. index; profusely illustrated with battle plans and photographs. As new condition. "James Ambrose Brown's journal of the life of a South African infantryman in the British North African 8th Army, almost exactly half a century ago, gives a day-to-day account of the campaign in the Western Desert against the redoubtable Rommel's Afrika Korps.. Brown's hour-to-hour depiction of the great battle [of El Alamein] that at last sent the enemy reeling back across North Africa remains a classic. A leading American journal, The Saturday Evening Post, called it 'The greatest worm's eye view of battle to come out of the war so far'. To bring today's reader into the picture, James Ambrose Brown has provided a preamble that sets out the political and military events which led up to World War II and the two years of lost North African battles that almost gave total victory to Germany and Italy. Splendid maps by Dr Richard Wood vividly illustrate the tactical situations described in the diary; they also fill in the gaps in large-scale operations. Lavish use of photographs taken by official war photographers illustrate the text. Also reproduced are sketches done by official war artists who were there. Retreat to Victory is a moving and timeless record of despair and hope; and the ultimate devastation that is left in the path of war."