In 1941, the series of exhilarating victories in the North African Desert came to an abrupt end with the arrival of the German Afrika Korps and their brilliant commander, Rommel. The second volume carries us into the next phase of the war in the desert. The death of General O'Connor and the political intervention that led Wavell to be replaced by Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief, to the near disaster at the First Battle of Alamein only averted by Auchinleck himself and the final political wrangle that meant despite this he, like Wavell, would be replaced.