Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West (United States Army in World War II: The Mediterranean Theater of Operations Volume 1)

xxiii, 748 pp. Green cloth, gilt titles. Includes 11 tables, 2 charts, 34 maps, 89 illustrations, notes on sources, glossaries, and index. "This volume is the history of the campaigns in World War II in which U.S. Army forces were first extensively engaged. It covers Operation Torch, a massive amphibious, surprise assault in November 1942, after which the Allies speedily gained control of French Morocco and Algeria and obtained a toehold in Tunisia..." Includes discussion of Allied and Axis command structures, tactical planning of joint task forces, problems of occupying colonial territory of a friendly nation, organized clandestine cooperation with the French, defense of a mountain pass, etc. (United States Army in World War II Reader's Guide, pp. 61-62).