Rommel's War in Africa

There is no bitterness in this book, no rancor. Instead,

there is a real understanding of what makes men at the sharp end tick. What was new to me was to be shown a picture of what it was like at the sharp end on the other side.

This account is beyond all doubt authentic. If the author gets it right about our side, how can he fail to get it right about his own? The way he tells his story is attractive, too.

He takes real characters (dozens are mentioned by name from our own people and I found I knew every one he gets them right, too) and follows some of the experiences of each. He also does this for members of the Afrika Korps. They turn up again and again and this lends a continuity to Heckmann's story which grips the reader.

This is a book by a man who hates war, who writes with compassion, good sense and humor, and quite without malice. I can think of many people who will read it with enormous pleasure for its authentic evocation of what war in the desert was like. I can also imagine that very many more, who were not there but would like to know about it. will find here a thoughtful and reliable guide into the

experiences of those who fought each other on the lowest level at the sharpest end, in that unique manifestation, the war in the Western Desert, the war without hate.