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Author Name: Nicolson, Nigel
Title: Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis
Binding: Brown Cloth
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition
Size: 8vo
Publisher: London Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Limited 1973
ISBN Number: 0297765159 / 9780297765158
Seller ID: 002949
xiii, 346pp., 23 b/w illus. 11 maps, ep maps biblio. Minor shelfwear to boards, manuf. crease to verso of half-title, unclipped DJ rubbed, with edgewear, sm. tears to top edge. "Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, known to his friends and half the world as Alex, was Montgomery's Commander-in-Chief at Alamein, and conquered Italy from Sicily to the Alps. Twice, in Tunisia and northern Italy, he forced the capitulation in the open field of an entire German Army Group. He brought about the downfall of Mussolini, and he captured Rome. These achievements occupied less than three years of a remarkably adventurous life. In the First War he won a reputation as the outstanding young officer of his generation. In 1919 he led a brigade of German Balts to reconquer Latvia from the Bolsheviks, and in 1935 became a hero of the northwest frontier of India. He commanded the British rearguard at Dunkirk, and conducted the successful retreat of the British Chinese army from Burma in 1942. After the Second War he was Governor General of Canada and Minister of Defence in Churchill's second Government. Such a career deserves a full record, and in this book Nigel Nicolson, who served under Alexander in Africa and Italy and was later a Member of Parliament when Alexander was a Minister, has been able to draw upon Alexander's official and private papers as well as on his own recollections. Many top-secret documents of the Second War are here published for the first time, and Mr Nicolson's conversations with leading commanders like Earl Mountbatten, Field Marshals Harding and Templer, and American and Canadian generals who served under Alexander, are reproduced verbatim. From these records Alexander emerges as a soldier of unusual quality. Mr Nicolson has analyzed his campaigns in depth, particularly when new light is thrown upon them by contemporary records, including Alexander's own notes scribbled on the battlefield. He describes his relations with Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Patton, sudden emergencies like the bombing of the monastery at Cassino or the civil war in Athens, and the controversies which still surround the evacuation from Dunkirk, the battle of Alamein, the landings in Sicily, at Salerno and Anzio, and the assault on Rome. But this book is not solely military history. It develops the personality of a gifted and charming man. Alexander was not easy to know: his reserve and modesty are qualities not often associated with successful soldiers, and one of the central themes in Mr Nicolson's biography is how Alexander managed to gain the respect and affection of difficult subordinates like Montgomery and Patton, and a million other men of mixed nationality, with a grace and lightness of touch which became legendary. Alexander was one of the most famous men of his time. It is right that his life-story should now be told so fully, and with such objectivity and understanding." [48]
MILITARY ARMY WW2 ALAMEIN BIOGRAPHY
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