Backdoor to Berlin

THIS is the story of the North African campaign by one of five AP men who were assigned to cover it. In addition to the usual profusion of incident and local color which is the stock in trade of the war correspondent’s book, Mr. Gallagher, keeping the main course of the campaign always in full view, gives us in his opening chapters a revealing picture of the scope and detail of the initial planning. He tells again the story of Clark’s secret mission to Algeria, of the negotiations with Darlan, and of the importation of Giraud. Like most of the reporters who were on the spot, Mr. Gallagher thinks that Eisenhower’s and Murphy’s policy was the only possible one in the circumstances; that it was not only a military necessity but actually expedient politically. “The primary trouble with North Africa,” he says, “was that she was suffering from ‘Axis sickness’ and had to cure herself.”