Well-adapted to its environment and with its passionate sense of self-identity and inner unity, the Afrika Korps was a smooth-functioning and militarily efficient fighting force. Since it had the social characteristics of a well-ordered family, Ronald Lewin has written this book as a biography. From February 1941 when Rommel arrived in Tunisia, the author tells the story of a long succession of engagements between the Desert Rats and the Afrika Korps fought in the laboratory-like conditions of the desert. It is a story of sustained bravery on both sides, of high military professionalism on the part of the Germans and of a frequent amateurishness on the part of the British, which ended only with the arrival of General Bernard Montgomery and sufficient materiel and the Desert Air Force winning superiority in the skies over the Western Desert. The author's grasp of his subject and his great skill in describing it make a gripping narrative.