After the Battle is already well-known and popular series of publications among the modellers, so I don’t think there is much needed in terms of introduction. I took notice of the publisher already long time ago primarily thanks to their magazine. Then, some time ago they have  released the book on Battles for Monte Cassino, which remains to be one of the most extensive resources dealing with this battle and of course this book found a spot on my bookshelf.

I was thus quite surprised few days ago, when I found out that the latest release from this publisher hit the market in March. The main reason for being surprised is the fact that the book deals with the North African campaign – given how popular this particular battlefield is among the modellers, it is wonder that there wasn’t more promotion done about this book, or maybe I have just missed it…

I have ordered the book through Canadian Amazon store and it has arrived quite promptly last Friday (to add to the surprise the book came from UK wrapped in a large sack, much to the amusement of my wife and kids…).  To shortly summarize – the book is amazing. just sheer scope of the coverage is overwhelming – almost 600 pages packed with historical as well modern photographs of all the major places that saw the action in North Africa. Some of the historical photographs are already well-known, but most of them I have seen for the first time. I am very much impressed by the achievement of the author Jean Paul Pallud who has meticulously tracked historical places, often barely recognizable and documented their current look for comparison.

The book is organized in 7 chapters, covering all the major periods of the battles in North Africa starting June 1940 and ending in May 1943. I have been slowly going through the pages of the book since it has arrived, just reading the photographs’ narratives (not the text part of the book itself) and am still barely through half of the book. The book will in my opinion have specific appeal to modellers as it provides great number of photos of vehicles of all kinds – British, American, German, Italian, both operational and destroyed and in high quality (some of them in colour).

The book price is also more than reasonable, I got it for about $70, which is by far one of the best deals given what the book offers.

I believe this book is THE one to have on this particular period of WWII. Whether you are a fan of the Afrikakorps or Desert Rats, this book is a must have.

You can find more information on the publisher’s site here.