Prologue Summary and Analysis

The military cemetery at Carthage, Tunisia holds some 2,800 identically designed marble headstones. The final battles of the people buried there aren't listed on the stones but can usually be inferred by reading the date of death. This site is very near the ancient city of Carthage (the home city of Hannibal), which was attacked, put under siege, and finally razed to the ground by the Romans in 146 B.C.

North Africa was a pivotal point both in World War II and in the rising might of U.S. military power in the world. In fact, North Africa determined the course of the war. The first major clashes between Allies and Axis troops occurred there. What started early on as small firefights between dozens of troops, quickly escalated into great campaigns with thousands of men, tanks, and planes. American ingenuity was tested...