TOBRUK

While it has not attained the status of Gallipoli--perhaps because no Mel Gibson film has celebrated it--the defense of Tobruk in 1941 was a magnificent achievement for the Australian army. Military history can be difficult to follow in audio since there are usually no maps to clarify the geography. But while this audio provides all the necessary context--indeed, it provides too much--its primary goal is to tell the stories of the soldiers who actually fought this grueling desert battle in North Africa. Humphrey Bower succeeds expertly. His Australian accent and his comfort with the informal dialogue capture the tone of the narrative, and his German is completely convincing. It is difficult to imagine a narrator more ideally suited to a text. D.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]