The third volume in this series returns to November 1942 to explain the
background to the first major Anglo-American venture - Operation Torch,
the invasion of French North Africa. It deals with the fratricidal
combats which followed the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria for
several days. It then considers the efforts made - unsuccessfully in the
event - to reach northern Tunisia before the Germans and Italians could
get there to forestall the possibility of an attack from the west on the
rear of the Afrika Korps forces, then beginning their retreat from El
Alamein. The six months of hard fighting which followed as the Allies
built up the strength of their joint air forces and gradually wrested
control of the skies from the Axis, are covered in detail. Then from 1
April 1943 the continuing story of the Western Desert Air Force is told
from the point at which Volume 2 ended, as it advanced from the east to
join hands with the units in the west. Now also described are the
arrivals over the front of American pilots and crew, the P-38 Lightning,
the Spitfire IX and the B-17 Flying Fortress - and of the much-feared
Focke-Wulf FW 190. The aerial activities over Tunisia became one of the
focal turning points of World War II, yet this is frequently overlooked
by historians. As before, the air-sea activities, the reconnaissance
flights and the growing day and night bomber offensives form a major
part of this volume. The mastery of the whole African coastline of the
southern Mediterranean by the Allies prepared the way for the invasions
of the European territories on the other side of this critical sea
during 1943, which will be dealt with in Volume 4.
