Second Battle of El Alamein Begins in Egypt

Context

By the summer of 1942 the Western Desert campaign had reached a critical stage. Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika had driven deep into Egypt after victories at Gazala and Tobruk, threatening the Suez Canal and British control of Middle Eastern oil supplies. The Qattara Depression limited maneuver to a narrow coastal corridor, forcing both sides into a frontal confrontation near the railway halt of El Alamein, roughly sixty miles west of Alexandria.

What Happened

Montgomery, who had taken command of the Eighth Army in August after the dismissal of Claude Auchinleck, spent weeks building overwhelming material superiority while Rommel’s forces suffered acute shortages of fuel and ammunition. On the night of 23 October, under a full moon, nearly nine hundred British guns opened a five-hour barrage along a broad front north of the main defensive line. Infantry divisions of XXX Corps advanced to clear paths through dense minefields in Operation Lightfoot, followed by armored units of X Corps intended to break through to the Rahman Track and engage the Axis panzers.

Aftermath

Rommel, returning from sick leave in Germany on 25 October, launched repeated counterattacks that were blunted by Allied artillery and air superiority. After twelve days of intense fighting the Axis line cracked; by 4 November surviving German and Italian formations began a long retreat westward. The Panzerarmee Afrika lost roughly half its strength in men and equipment, while the Eighth Army suffered more than thirteen thousand casualties.

Legacy

The victory ended the immediate Axis threat to Egypt and the Middle East and marked the first major British success against German forces since 1941. It coincided with the Allied landings in French North Africa under Operation Torch, trapping Axis troops between two fronts and leading to their final surrender in Tunisia the following May. Historians view El Alamein as the turning point of the North African campaign and a significant boost to Allied morale at a time when the war’s outcome remained uncertain.