Rising Tide: A Review of Jeff Shaara's First Historical Novel of World War II

Jeff Shaara, the bestselling author of historical fiction, has taken aim at the bloodiest war in world history. Shaara's Rising Tide is the first of a trilogy covering the European theater of World War II. Shaara tells the tale through the eyes of several figures, including Rommel, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Mark Clark, George Patton, Bernard Montgomery as well as soldiers Jack Logan and Jesse Adams. The balance between generals and soldiers is a welcome one, and Shaara handles it well. The only complaint in the balance department is that the Axis forces don't get a similar treatment. We only see their side through the eyes of Rommel and Field Marshal Kesselring. Shaara utilizes diaries, interviews, and historical documents to recreate the events and dialog in his story. It is a pattern he followed in his previous novels, such as Gone for Soldiers (Mexican War), The Glorious Cause (American Revolution), and To the Last Man (World War I). Rising Tide begins with British forces squaring off against Erwin Rommel's formidable Afrika Korps for mastery of North Africa. Rommel is determined to defeat the British before the United States can bring itself fully into the conflict, tipping the balance in favor of the Allies. Rommel fails. But Shaara skillfully shows that the failure is due more to German High Command than Rommel. Benito Mussolini had launched the African campaign for his grandiose dream of a renewed Roman Empire. In short order, he bungled the operation, with the Italians facing repeated defeats from the British. Hitler sent German forces to assist, their most visible and prominent commander being Erwin Rommel. As Rising Tide shows, Rommel was the German's most dangerous and effective general. Fortunately for the Allies, the German High Command was too obsessed with their invasion of the Soviet Union to provide Rommel adequate support. In addition, Rommel's strategy was constantly being questioned and sabotaged by Hitler's High Command. The reader of Rising Tide breathes a sigh of relief at Hitler's megalomaniac tendencies. For a more deliberate and reasoned Hitler would have caused the Allies much more trouble. In fact, Shaara shows just how feasible it would have been for Rommel to, if not win, at least fight the Allies to a costly stalemate in North Africa - prolonging for years (if not indefinitely) any serious invasion of Fortress Europe by the British and Americans. Sadly for Rommel and fortunately for the free world, Hitler didn't listen to his best general. And the rest is history. Shaara's Rising Tide is excellent. Though not as captivating as Gone for Soldiers or as inspiring as his Revolutionary War novels Rise to Rebellion and Glorious Cause, The Rising Tide is still a gripping account of one of the more neglected phases of World War II.