Second Battle of El Alamein (1942): Montgomery Defeats Rommel

The Second Battle of El Alamein was fought in the Egyptian desert between 23 October and November 1942, when the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery broke through the defences of the German-Italian Panzer Army Africa led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. After twelve days of hard attritional fighting, the Axis army retreated west, never to return to Egypt. The victory ended the threat to the Suez Canal and is often described as the first decisive British land victory over German forces in the Second World War.

Background

The war in North Africa had swung back and forth across Libya and Egypt since 1940. In 1941 the Axis besieged the port of Tobruk, which held out for months in the siege of Tobruk. In May and June 1942 Rommel defeated the Eighth Army at the Battle of Gazala, captured Tobruk on 21 June and pursued the British deep into Egypt.

The British stopped him at El Alamein, a railway halt about 66 miles (106 km) west of Alexandria. There the desert narrowed into a front of about 40 miles (65 km) between the Mediterranean coast and the impassable Qattara Depression, so the position could not easily be outflanked. In July 1942 General Claude Auchinleck fought Rommel to a standstill in what became known as the First Battle of El Alamein.

In August Churchill reorganised the command. General Harold Alexander became Commander-in-Chief Middle East, and after the designated army commander, Lieutenant-General William Gott, was killed when his aircraft was shot down, Montgomery took over the Eighth Army on 13 August. At the Battle of Alam Halfa (30 August – 5 September 1942) the Eighth Army repulsed Rommel’s last attempt to break through to the Nile.

Preparations

Montgomery refused to attack until his army was fully trained and supplied, despite pressure from Churchill. He rebuilt morale, kept his armoured divisions together and planned a methodical battle. Large numbers of new American-built Sherman and Grant tanks arrived, along with 6-pounder anti-tank guns and reinforcements.

An elaborate deception, Operation Bertram, used dummy tanks, fake supply dumps and even a dummy water pipeline to suggest that the attack would come in the south and later than it did. British codebreakers reading German Enigma traffic, known as Ultra, together with air and naval attacks on Mediterranean convoys, revealed and worsened the Axis shortage of fuel.

Air power was another Allied advantage. The Desert Air Force under Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham attacked Axis airfields, supply columns and troop concentrations, and worked closely with the army. Bombers and submarines based on Malta and in Egypt struck Axis convoys crossing the Mediterranean; during the battle several tankers carrying fuel for Rommel’s army were sunk, so that his panzer divisions could barely move.

The Axis forces dug in behind deep minefields, which the Germans called “devil’s gardens”, containing an estimated half a million mines. Rommel, ill and exhausted, left for medical treatment in Germany in September, handing command to General Georg Stumme.

Forces

Estimates of aircraft and tanks vary by source and by whether reserves and unserviceable machines are counted.

What happened

Operation Lightfoot. At 21:40 on 23 October 1942 nearly 900 guns opened a massive barrage. Infantry of XXX Corps, including the 9th Australian, 51st Highland, 2nd New Zealand and 1st South African Divisions, advanced in the north to clear two corridors through the minefields for the tanks of X Corps. Progress was slower than planned, and the armour struggled to pass through the congested gaps. In the south, XIII Corps made diversionary attacks.

Stumme died of a heart attack on 24 October while under fire near the front. Rommel flew back and resumed command on the evening of 25 October. He counter-attacked repeatedly, using up his scarce tanks and fuel against the strong British anti-tank defences.

One of the most celebrated actions came on 26–27 October at a position codenamed Snipe, near Kidney Ridge. A battalion of the Rifle Brigade with anti-tank guns, under Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Turner, held out for a day against repeated counter-attacks and claimed dozens of Axis tanks and other vehicles destroyed or damaged. Turner was awarded the Victoria Cross.

The “dogfight”. For the next week the battle became what Montgomery called a “crumbling” process of attrition. The 9th Australian Division pushed north towards the coast, drawing Rommel’s reserves there. Italian formations such as the Folgore parachute division and the Ariete armoured division fought with great determination despite poor equipment.

Operation Supercharge. In the early hours of 2 November Montgomery launched a new breakthrough attack, led by New Zealand and British infantry and tanks. The 9th Armoured Brigade suffered very heavy losses but held a gap open, and on 2 November the decisive tank battle at Tel el Aqqaqir wore down the remaining German armour.

Rommel began to withdraw on 3 November, but Hitler ordered him to stand fast, telling him there was no other road than victory or death. Rommel briefly obeyed, then on 4 November, with the front broken, ordered a full retreat. Many Italian infantry units without transport were left behind and captured. Rain and fuel shortages slowed the British pursuit, but by 11 November Axis forces had been driven out of Egypt.

Key people

Bernard Montgomery became Britain’s best-known general of the war. His careful preparation and concentration of force were decisive, though critics argue his pursuit afterwards was too cautious. Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the “Desert Fox”, was outnumbered and short of fuel, and his decision to retreat against orders saved part of his army.

Harold Alexander provided support and strategic direction from Cairo, while Georg Stumme commanded during the battle’s first day. Dominion and Commonwealth troops from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, as well as Free French and Greek units, formed a large part of the Eighth Army.

Claude Auchinleck, Montgomery’s predecessor, was dismissed in August 1942, but many historians now credit him with saving Egypt in the First Battle of El Alamein in July. The defensive positions he chose and the reinforcements already arriving under his command laid important foundations for the later victory. Montgomery’s own accounts tended to play down this inheritance, which fed a long-running debate among historians and veterans.

Losses

Axis casualty figures are less certain than Allied ones and vary between histories.

Consequences

The victory removed any threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal and the oil of the Middle East. Four days after Rommel began his retreat, Allied forces landed in Morocco and Algeria in Operation Torch on 8 November 1942, trapping the Axis between two Allied armies. After months of fighting in Tunisia, about 250,000 German and Italian troops surrendered there in May 1943.

In Britain the government ordered church bells, silent since 1940 and reserved as an invasion warning, to be rung on Sunday 15 November 1942 to celebrate. At the same time, the Soviet encirclement at the Battle of Stalingrad was about to begin, and together these battles marked the turning of the tide.

Myths, facts and context

It is often said that El Alamein was a purely British victory. In fact the Eighth Army was a multinational force, and the Australian, New Zealand, South African and Indian divisions played central roles. Another popular belief is that the Italians fought poorly; many Italian units were badly equipped and lacked transport, but several fought stubbornly and earned the respect of their opponents.

The battle in context

El Alamein was the culmination of a campaign shaped by distance and supply. Every gallon of fuel and every shell for the Axis had to cross the Mediterranean and then travel hundreds of miles from ports such as Tripoli, Benghazi and Tobruk. The Eighth Army, by contrast, fought close to its base in the Nile Delta, supplied by long convoys around Africa and increasingly by American production. Montgomery’s methodical approach, sometimes criticised as slow, was designed to use that material advantage while avoiding the reverses that had befallen earlier British offensives.

Legacy

The El Alamein War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, holds more than 7,000 graves, and the El Alamein Memorial lists over 11,000 soldiers and airmen with no known grave. German and Italian memorials stand on nearby ridges. Montgomery took the title Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1946.

Timeline

• 1942, 21 June: Rommel captures Tobruk.
• 1942, 1–27 July: First Battle of El Alamein halts the Axis advance.
• 1942, 13 August: Montgomery takes command of the Eighth Army.
• 1942, 30 August – 5 September: Battle of Alam Halfa.
• 1942, 23 October, 21:40: Barrage opens Operation Lightfoot.
• 1942, 24–25 October: Stumme dies; Rommel returns to command.
• 1942, 2 November: Operation Supercharge begins.
• 1942, 4 November: Rommel orders a general retreat.
• 1942, 8 November: Operation Torch landings in Morocco and Algeria.
• 1942, 11 November: Axis forces driven out of Egypt.

Why it matters

El Alamein ended Axis hopes of reaching the Nile and the Middle East and restored British confidence after years of defeats in the desert. Fought just as the Allies landed in North Africa and the Red Army struck at Stalingrad, it was one of the battles that turned the Second World War against Germany and Italy.