The North African campaign, the struggle of the Italians and Germans against the Allies in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia between 1940 and 1943, was a war of movement and maneuver, of dramatic changes of fortune, and it was a war in which mechanized forces - tanks in particular - excelled. Compared with the heavily populated landscapes of northwest Europe, the empty open spaces of North Africa appeared to be ideal operating terrain for tanks, yet the harsh desert conditions tested men and machinery to the limit, as Anthony Tucker-Jones demonstrates in this remarkable selection of wartime photographs.

Anthony Tucker-Jones is a former defense intelligence officer and a widely published expert on regional conflicts, counter-terrorism and armored and aerial warfare. He is the author of over thirty books, is security and terrorism correspondent for intersec - The Journal of International Security, and has freelanced for Channel 4 News.