Being there . . . . in 1942 when Britain and the United States had to prove to “Uncle” Joe Stalin
that the main Western Allies were deadly serious about relieving the Soviet Union of the Hitler
eastern juggernaut on Moscow’s doorstep. With earnest western invasion planning along the
French Coast still more than a year away, cross-Channel landings, beset by all sorts of
operational and logistical problems, to say nothing about pilot and aircraft shortages, our
President Roosevelt gave the near-desperate order to launch Operation Torch, American troop
landings on Moroccan and Algerian beaches. Joe, forever unappeasable and suspicious, hinted
a dull thank-you smile, but was skeptical of any “relief” value Americans would have on his
Eastern fronts in November of 1942. Certainly, they might keep the Germans from crossing the
Volga at Stalingrad. But how would fighting in the sands of North Africa keep the citizens of
surrounded Leningrad from starving to death? How would elements of the American army and
its growing USAAF occupying the mountains and foothills of western Morocco turn the German
tide in western Russia?
OSPREY PUBLISHING, JUST IN TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS GIFT-GIVING SEASON, OFFERS A
SPIRITED, RIVETING ACCOUNT HOW IN LESS THAN 11 MONTHS THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR
FORCE GREW FROM ITS SMALL BEGINNINGS IN MOROCCO AND ALGERIA TO BECOME FOR
BRITAIN HER MOST IMPORTANT ALLIED PARTNER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DURING THE
SUMMER OF 1942 IN PILOTS AND AIRCRAFT. BRITAIN, OF COURSE, WAS ECSTATIC – – SHE HAD
TO READY HER PEOPLE AND THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS FOR THE FORTHCOMING LANDINGS
ALONG THE NORMANY COAST. AND WHAT A SPECTACLUR JOB THEY DID! MEANWHILE, OUR
BOYS TOOK ON THE AXIS FORCES THAT DOMINATED THE NORTH AFRICAN ENTIRE SOUTHERN
SHORE OF BENITO MUSSOLINI’S “MARE NOSTRUM”, OUR SEA, FOLLOWED BY THE INVASION
AND OCCUPATION OF SICILY. NO STUDY ON THIS SUBJECT HAS EVER BEEN FULLY EXPLORED AS
MUCH AS THIS BRILLIANT, MOST WELCOMED, NEW TREATISE.
Reviewed and highly, highly recommended by Don DeNevi as a perfect Christmas gift for
both a deserved recipient and the self . . .
“TURNING THE TIDE – – The USAAF in North Africa and Sicily”, by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver,
Foreword by Richard P. Hallion. OSPREY PUBLISHING/Bloomsbury Publishing; 2024, 320 pages,
6 ¼” x 9 ½”, hardcover, highly illustrated with unpublished photos, maps, $32. Visit,
www.ospreypublishing.com; E-mail, info@ospreypublising.com.
A major masterwork, Tom said recently from his home in Encino, California, “It’s my hope
that my effort, ‘Turning the Tide’, will change the sad truth that the amazing records set by
those brave, courageous pilots and crews who fought in one of the most difficult combat
environments on the planet is worthy of recall and acclaim.”
In short, author Cleaver has provided readers of rare World War II research with a study long
wanted, long waited for, and, to our delight, accomplished to the final sentence with care,
clarity, and scholarship. Because he is a published, well known, military writer for the past 40
years, we’ve all read his other best-selling OSPREY titles, such as “The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club”
(2021), “Going Downtown”, (2022), “The Cactus Air Force” (2022), and “Clean Sweep” (2023).
Meanwhile, we should note Tom has served as a screenwriter for various Hollywood studios,
i.e., the cult classic, popular, “The Terror Within”. In addition, he has worked as a supervising
producer on a number of TV and cable series. He served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam.
“TURNING THE TIDE – – The USAAF in North Africa and Sicily”, all 320 pages of it, shines as a
substantial achievement, a tribute to the author’s narrative skill, and our resoluteness of
interest to complete the reading to its end.
