Meeting the Fox: The Allied Invasion of Africa, from Operation Torch to Kasserine Pass to Victory in Tunisia Hardback - 2002

If modern visitors to the North Africa American Cemetery should ask why the United States, which had been at war with Nazi Germany for nearly a year, chose to make its first move against the enemy more than 1,400 miles from Berlin, in a part of Africa where, except for a few diplomatic personnel, there weren't any Germans, they would be echoing the very question America's Joint Chiefs of Staff had at the time.

Meeting the Fox

Before Normandy, before Anzio, a fledgling Allied army of inexperienced officers and undertrained, ill-equipped troops launched a perilous amphibious invasion of unprecedented size and scope. Their mission: to fight their way across 1,200 miles of mountain and desert and wrest control of North Africa from the battle-hardened veterans of the Nazis' vaunted Afrika Korps, commanded by legendary Field Marshal Erwin Rommel-- the Desert Fox.

Meeting the Fox tells the dramatic, but now almost forgotten, story of the first Americans to confront Hitler's war machine in battle. It takes you from the huge armada that landed more than 100,000 troops along the African coast, through bitter defeats in the dry hills of Tunisia, and on to a stunning victory after six months of savage fighting on land, on the sea, and in the air.

Peppered with riveting firsthand accounts from front-line GIs, this fast-paced chronicle reveals how a hastily assembled army of citizen soldiers transformed itself into a devastatingly effective fighting force on the deadly proving ground of Tunisia. It tells how peacetime battlefield tactics were cast aside in the light of wartime reality, analyzes the successes and blunders of a talented but previously untested officer corps, and examines the often prickly relationships among American, British, and French commanders.

From lightning-fast commando raids to chaotic tank battles, from fierce aerial combat to massive infantry assaults, this masterfully told tale brings to life the pivotal campaign that proved Hitler could be beaten and that paved the way for the Normandy landings and victory on the battlefields of Europe. Bristling with rapid-fire action, gripping suspense, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Meeting the Fox creates an unforgettable portrait of the determination, sacrifice, and heroism that led to the first great Allied victory of World War II.