Quote of the day

Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn - The War in North Africa 1942-1943, p 377:

Having participated in several catastrophic defeats himself, [British General Harold Alexander] should have recognized that defeat sometimes carried annealing and even salutory properties. A great sorting out was under way: the competent from the incompetent, the courageous from the fearful, the lucky from the unlucky. It would happen faster in the American Army than it had in the British.

Eric