Kaushik Roy - Fighting Rommel; The British Imperial Army in North Africa during the Second World War, 1941–1943

Fighting Rommel examines how and why some armies innovate under pressure while others do not. Focusing on the learning culture of the British Imperial Forces, it looks at the Allied campaign during the Second World War against the Afrika Korps of Rommel. The volume highlights the hitherto unexplored yet key role of the British Indian Army, the largest volunteer force in the world. It also introduces learning culture as a heuristic device. Further, it goes on to analyze military innovation on the battlefield, in victory and defeat.

A major intervention in the study of the Second World War, this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of military history, especially British and German, battlefield history, and defence and strategic studies.

Kaushik Roy is Guru Nanak Chair Professor at the Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, and Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway.

First published 2020

by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Kaushik Roy

The right of Kaushik Roy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Roy, Kaushik, author.

Title: Fighting Rommel : the British Imperial Army in North Africa during the Second World War, 19411943 / Kaushik Roy.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019030506 (print) | LCCN 2019030507 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367265700 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367358242 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429296017 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Great Britain. Army. Army, EighthDrill and tactics. | Great Britain. Army. British Indian ArmyDrill and tactics. | World War, 19391945CampaignsAfrica, North. | Organizational learning.

Classification: LCC D766.82 .R69 2020 (print) | LCC D766.82 (ebook) | DDC 940.54231dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030506

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030507

ISBN: 978-0-367-26570-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-35824-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-29601-7 (ebk)

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Fighting Rommel deals with the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Army in general and the Indian formations within it in particular. We ask the question whether the Eighth Army experienced any innovations (in the fields of doctrine, training and tactics) while combating the Desert Fox in North Africa from 1941 to 1943. This is a scholarly book and would appeal to those interested in the Second World War, British imperial history and South Asian history as well as practitioners from the field of international relations/security studies. However, books about the Second World War attract a general literate public from all over the world, and Rommel especially is a household name. Since this book is written in an easy narrative style, it will also attract general readers.

My humble acknowledgement to the trustees of LHCMA for allowing me to use materials collected from their archives. Sincere thanks to all the other archives both inside and outside India for allowing me to use the materials collected from their holdings for research purposes. I have accumulated a great deal of debt while writing this book. Special thanks to my friends Dr. Gavin Rand of Department of History, Greenwich University, United Kingdom, and Dr. Narender Yadav of Ministry of Defence, Historical Section, New Delhi, for guiding me to the various archives of United Kingdom and India. I am grateful to my PhD scholars, Mr. Arka Choudhury, Ms. Moumita Choudhury and Ms. Priyanjana Gupta, and my two students, Ms. Sohini Mitra and Mr. Dipro Sen, for collecting data on my behalf. Thanks to Ms. Jane Bryan-Browne and Mr. Damien Fenton for copying certain documents for my use from various archives of London and Manchester and the National Archives of New Zealand at Wellington. And thanks to Suhrita for providing continuous emotional support while I was engaged in writing this book. In this regard, I consider myself luckier than Rommel, as Hitler refused to provide him solid moral and material backing when the Desert Fox was engaged in fighting the Eighth Army.

Kaushik Roy
Kolkata 2019