For the Allies, the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943 was a rude awakening. During a pivotal three-week period—as the entire world fixed its gaze upon a hitherto obscure village in the mountains of North Africa—major questions about the course of the war were asked and answered. In this gripping look at a crucial struggle during a formative period of World War II, the author explains why Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, previously untested, emerged as important military leaders and how the Allies endured the grim punishment inflicted by the Germans at Kasserine Pass and learned to wage successfully a coalition war against Axis forces.