Skip to main content

Free UK delivery for orders £30 and over

Desert Rat vs Afrikakorps Soldier

Operation Crusader 1941

Desert Rat vs Afrikakorps Soldier cover

Desert Rat vs Afrikakorps Soldier

Operation Crusader 1941

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 18 Feb 2027
£11.51 RRP £12.79 Website price saving £1.28 (10%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

Fully illustrated, this study assesses the importance of British and German infantry formations to the armies fighting in Operation Crusader during late 1941.

During the Desert War (1940–43), both sides viewed armour as the decisive arm because the North African terrain did not hinder its manoeuvrability. Having defeated the Italians in 1940, the British believed their infantry did not need to co-operate with tanks, enemy tanks did not need to be targeted offensively by anti-tank guns, and tanks and artillery could be dispersed.

When Rommel's Deutsches Afrikakorps arrived, however, the British were rudely awakened. If infantry units lost armour support, they risked suffering crippling losses from enemy tanks. The British tended to keep their tank units close to infantry to counter German armour, meaning they were not available to the same extent as German armour to exploit battlefield successes.

In this book, David Greentree investigates the effectiveness of the two sides' motorized infantry during Operation Crusader, the Allied bid to relieve the besieged port of Tobruk in late 1941. He focuses on three moments in the fighting: the British attack on 21 November; the German counter-attack on 22 November; and the struggle for Belhamed on 1–2 December. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and mapping and carefully chosen archive photographs, this is the story of the two sides' infantry at war in late 1941.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • EPUB 3.0
  • Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
  • WCAG level AA
  • WCAG v2.2 compliant
  • [email protected]

Hazards

The publication contains no hazards

Support for non-visual reading

  • No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
  • Has alternative text descriptions for images

Visual adjustments

Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)

Navigation

  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
  • Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
  • Purposes of all links are made clear

Rich content

Language tagging provided

Table of Contents

(subject to confirmation)
Introduction
The Opposing Sides
Break-out, 21 November 1941
21. Panzer-Division's counter-attack, 22 November 1941
Belhamed, 1–2 December 1941
Analysis
Aftermath
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published 18 Feb 2027
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 80
ISBN 9781472871909
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations Colour artwork plates and maps; black & white and colour photographs and illustrations.
Series Combat
Short code CBT 88
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

David Greentree

David Greentree graduated from the University of Y…

Illustrator

Steve Noon

Steve Noon was born in Kent, UK, and attended art…

Resources

Book Vote

Tell us what titles you would like to see published by Osprey, then vote for your favourites in our monthly book vote!

Related Titles

Sign up for Osprey membership for access to thousands of plane profiles, maps, battle scenes and more. Plus up to 30% off website purchases