Topography is fate

Some World War II battle sites, such as the D-Day beaches ofNormandy, are well known and frequently visited. The criticalbattlefields of the North African campaign, which took placebetween June 1940 and May 1943, are particularlyinaccessible, both because of their geographic location andbecause they exist within a region that continues to beaffected by political strife and violent upheavals. Yet, in 2011and 2012, the photographer Matthew Arnold spent severalmonths traveling from Egypt to Tunisia to document remoteWWII battlefields where Axis and Allied forces fought againsteach other and against the elements amid challenging terrain.Beautifully illustrated with 79 of Arnold’s color images from this project, the book commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of the NorthAfrican campaign.“A vivid, often haunting look at North African battlefieldsthat have been silent and largely unobserved for more thanseventy years. Matthew Arnold's photographs are so compellingthat little imagination is needed to see opposingarmies once again sweeping across the desert.”Rick Atkinson (American author and Pulitzer Prize winner)