"Between Friday and Monday we never slept at all. Everyone's face was one mass of sand. . . . The guns were so hot, all the paint had gone." --Bombardier Ray Ellis

Had the Allies lost in North Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps would have swept through the Middle East, cutting the vital supply line through the Suez Canal to Australia and India, and taking the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Britain would have been isolated, without oil, and unable to fight. These crucial battles of 1940-1943 were fought over vast distances on rugged terrain, with supply lines often stretched to...