Rommel and the Secret War in North Africa

In this new book, Janusz Piekalkiewicz chronicles the British Secret Inteligence Service (SIS) and the "Ultra" secret, and its effect on the campaign in North Africa during the Secon World War. On the German side, Rommel also knew the use of intercepted enemy messages - an awareness that the British were able to gain only much too late and after many sacrifices. The decoding of Rommel's radio messages, which were coded using the "Enigma" cipher machine, provided the British command with unawaited possibilities, which are described for the first time. These behind the scenes activities are depicted here on a day-to-day basis. Before this background, many decisions by the British high command in the Near East in their battle against the "Desert Fox" are now understood for the first time. The fact that many of Rommel's operations described as strokes of genius in military history were only possible thanks to the constant information from his surveillance company, was learned by the British leadership only on July 10, 1942; during the previous night, units of the Australian 9th Division had made a bold move and captured the German Intelligence Long Range Reconnaissance Company 621 at Tel el Eisa. It had been Rommel's ear in the enemy's camp. Its elimination can be regarded as the real turning point in the North American Janusz Piekalkiewicz (1925-1988) was a world-renowned author on many aspects of World War II history. Over 30 of his books are in print including BMW Motorcycles in World War II, and The German 88 Gun in Combat, from Schiffer Military History.