Martin Blumenson (1918–2005)

The first question to ask about the Battle of Kasserine Pass is: whose victory was it? It was at the outset, if the preceding battles of Faid and Sidi bou Zid are included, clearly a German victory, but if the battle as a whole is considered, that is not quite so clear. Indeed, it seems as if Kasserine may be seen as a model for the later Battle of the Bulge. The Americans were driven back, but they were not, in the end, quite defeated.

Blumenson’s book is a good account of a battle in which “Within a few days, the Germans were back where they had begun operations on February 14, less than two weeks earlier.” Rommel “had thrown a scare into every Allied headquarters in North Africa and had taught the Allies much about the art of war,” but he “had accomplished little in the way of gaining elbow room in Tunisia.”

My main complaint about this book is with the absence of notes.… (more)