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Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against a Fascist State in Iraq and the Levant, 1941
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About Blood, Oil And The Axis: The Allied Resistance
Product Description The riveting story of the unlikely coalition of individuals who prevented the Axis from obtaining an abundant supply of oil and absorbing an army of 50,000 into their own, turning the tide of WWII in the Middle East Spring 1941 was a high point for the Axis war machine. Western Europe was conquered; southeastern Europe was falling, Great Britain on its heels; and Rommel’s Afrika Korps was freshly arrived to drive on the all-important Suez Canal. In Blood, Oil and the Axis, historian John Broich tells the story of Iraq and the Levant during this most pivotal time of the war. The browbeaten Allied forces had one last remaining hope for turning the war in their favor: the Axis running through its fuel supply. But when the Golden Square―four Iraqi generals allegiant to the Axis cause―staged a coup in Iraq, elevating a pro-German junta and prompting military cooperation between Vichy French–occupied Syria and Lebanon and the Axis, disaster loomed. Blood, Oil and the Axis follows those who participated in the Allies’ frantic, improvised, and unlikely response to this dire threat: Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs, Australians, American and British soldiers, Free French Foreign Legionnaires, and Jewish Palestinians, all who shared a desperate, bloody purpose in quashing the formation of an Axis state in the Middle East. Memorable figures of this makeshift alliance include Jack Hasey, a young American who ran off to fight with the Free French Foreign Legion before his own country entered the war; Freya Stark, a famous travel-writer-turned-government-agent; and even Roald Dahl, a twenty-three-year-old Royal Air Force recruit (and future author of beloved children’s books). Taking the reader on a tour of cities and landscapes grimly familiar to today’s reader―from a bombed-out Fallujah, to Baghdad, to Damascus―Blood, Oil and the Axis is poised to become the definitive chronicle of the Axis’s menacing play for Iraq and the Levant in 1941 and the extraordinary alliance that confronted it. 16 b&w illustrations Review "John Broich aptly details ... a worthy, informative, and enjoyable history of the war, highlighting an often overlooked aspect of the conflict." -- ForeWord Reviews "[Blood, Oil and the Axis] does an excellent job of interlacing the story of a campaign that plays out like a John le Carré novel, with dashing provocateurs, daring soldiers, and covert operatives all mixed into a brew of Arab nationalism and French dismay at having to repel what they considered Allied invaders." -- New York Journal of Books "Smartly written and deeply researched ... a remarkable story of courage, initiative, and bold small-unit leadership." -- WWII Magazine "...Almost absurdly colorful. Mr. Broich tells the story with enthusiasm and an impressive ability to summarize big-picture complexities. ...In places, as spies stalk the region, the material is like 'Casablanca' meets 'The English Patient.'" -- The Wall Street Journal "...Action-packed...John Broich has written a thoroughly researched, clear, and readable exposition of a series of sadly neglected Second World War events...a masterly job." --The Journal of Military History About the Author John Broich holds a PhD in British History from Stanford University, and is a professor of British Empire and WWII history at Case Western Reserve University. His writing appears in the Washington Post, TheGuardian.com, Smithsonian.com, and BBC History Magazine. He is the author of Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade, available from Overlook Press. He lives in Ohio and Minnesota.
