In “The Day of Battle,” Rick Atkinson picks up where he left off in “An Army at Dawn,” his history of the North African campaign, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. A planned third volume, on the Normandy invasion and the war in Europe, will complete “The Liberation Trilogy,” which is shaping up as a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written, thick with unforgettable description and rooted in the sights and sounds of battle.
Indeed, Atkinson’s first volume was superb and highly recommended. I’ve been anxiously awaiting volume two — so much so, I’m placing my order as soon as I decide whether to go buy it at the store so I don’t have to wait until next week, or just get it from Amazon. (Update: D’oh, it’s not out until Tuesday in any case.)
I recommend you read An Army at Dawn first.
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
And, by the way, the article from The Atlantic I mentioned, Victory at Sea, is quite good.
[Update October 4: I’ve commented on the book here.]