For the Allies, the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943 was a rude awakening. During a pivotal three-week period—as the entire world fixed its gaze upon a hitherto obscure village in the mountains of North Africa—major questions about the course of the war were asked and answered. In this gripping look at a crucial struggle during a formative period of World War II, the author explains why Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, previously untested, emerged as important military leaders and how the Allies endured the grim punishment inflicted by the Germans at Kasserine Pass and learned to wage successfully a coalition war against Axis forces.
Author
Martin Blumenson was a soldier in the US army, and a military historian, and a recognised authority on the life of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Blumenson received a Bachelors and Masters degree from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He received a second master's degree in history from Harvard University. He also was an exellent pianist, performing at Carnegie Hall as a young man. He served as a U.S. Army officer in northwestern Europe during World War II. After the war he lived in France for a number of years, where he met his wife of 55 years, Genevieve Adelbert Blumenson, who died in 2000. Blumenson again served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and later worked in the Office of the Chief of Military History until 1967. After this he became an adviser on civil disorders for the Johnson administration.
