![]() ![]() Lieutenant-General William Gott was to command the Eighth Army, but was killed before taking command when the transport plane he was travelling in was shot down by Luftwaffe fighters Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery became Eighth Army commander.įaced with overextended supply lines and a relative lack of reinforcements, and well aware of massive allied reinforcements in men and material on the way, Rommel decided to strike the Allies while their build-up was incomplete. In early August, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Sir Alan Brooke-the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff-visited Cairo and replaced Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief Middle East with General Sir Harold Alexander. At the end of July, Auchinleck called off all offensive action with a view to rebuilding the army’s strength. Here, in early July, the Axis advance was halted in the First Battle of El Alamein.Įighth Army counter-offensives during July were unsuccessful, as Rommel dug in to allow his exhausted troops to regroup. This gave the defenders a relatively short front to defend and secure flanks, because tanks could not traverse the Depression. General Auchinleck withdrew the Eighth Army to within 50 mi (80 km) of Alexandria to a point where the Qattara Depression came to within 40 mi (64 km) of El Alamein on the coast. From a psychological perspective, Second El Alamein revived the morale of the Allies, being the first major offensive against the Axis since the start of the European war in 1939 in which the Western Allies achieved a decisive victory.įurther information: Second Battle of El Alamein order of battleĮrwin Rommel (first from the left) in his command halftrack, SdKfz.250/3.īy 12 July 1942, after its success at the Battle of Gazala, the Panzer Army Africa ( Panzerarmee Afrika), composed of German and Italian infantry and mechanised units under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, had struck deep into Egypt, threatening the British Empire's control of the Suez Canal. This victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign and ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, and of gaining access to the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields via North Africa. It followed the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance into Egypt, after which, in August 1942, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had taken command of the British Eighth Army from General Claude Auchinleck. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) took place near the Egyptian coastal city of El Alamein. (Photographer: Len Chetwyn).ħ70 – 900 aircraft (480 serviceable) ħ30 – 750 aircraft (530 serviceable) 24 October 1942: Australian 9th Infantry Division in a posed attack. ![]()
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