{ "slug": "el-alamein", "title": "Second Battle of El Alamein", "status": "draft", "era": "WWII and later", "date_text": "23 October – 4 November 1942", "start": "1942-10-23", "end": "1942-11-04", "war": "World War II", "cdb90_war": "WORLD WAR II (NORTH AFRICA 1942-1943)", "place": { "name": "El Alamein, between the Mediterranean coast and the Qattara Depression, Matrouh Governorate, Egypt", "lat": 30.8414, "lon": 28.9431, "wikidata": "Q153376" }, "lede": "Between 23 October and 4 November 1942 Montgomery's Eighth Army broke the German-Italian army's fortified line at El Alamein after twelve days of attrition, ending the Axis threat to Egypt and Suez and beginning the retreat that ended in Tunisia.", "result": "Decisive Allied victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "British Commonwealth and Allies (Eighth Army: British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Indian, Fighting French and Greek troops)", "commanders": [ "General Sir Harold Alexander", "Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery", "Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese", "Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks", "Lieutenant-General Herbert Lumsden" ], "strength": { "value": 195000, "low": 190000, "high": 195000, "source": "s2" }, "casualties": { "value": 13560, "low": 13560, "high": 13560, "source": "s2" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Germany and Italy (German-Italian Panzer Army, Panzerarmee Afrika until 25 October)", "commanders": [ "General Georg Stumme (to 24 October)", "General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma (acting, 24–25 October)", "Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (from 25 October)" ], "strength": { "value": 104000, "low": 100000, "high": 116000, "source": "s2" }, "casualties": { "value": 30541, "low": 30541, "high": 41800, "source": "s1" } } ], "sections": { "background": "By the summer of 1942 the desert war had swung back and forth along the North African coast for two years. Rommel's victory at Gazala and the capture of Tobruk carried his German-Italian army into Egypt, where it was stopped in July in the First Battle of El Alamein. The position there was unusual for the desert: a front of about forty miles between the sea, near the railway halt of El Alamein, and the Qattara Depression, impassable to vehicles. Neither side could swing round an open flank; any attack had to go straight through.\n\nMontgomery took over the Eighth Army in August and beat off Rommel's last attempt to break through, at Alam el Halfa, at the turn of August and September. Churchill pressed for an early offensive. Montgomery refused to attack before he was ready; because defended minefields could only be tackled by moonlight, and he could not be ready by the September full moon, Alexander backed him and 23 October was chosen. The date mattered beyond Egypt: Anglo-American landings in French North Africa were due on 8 November, and a resounding victory a few days before might help them succeed.\n\nOn the other side, Rommel was ill. On 23 September he left for treatment in Germany, handing the Panzerarmee to General Georg Stumme, newly arrived from the Russian front. His army was short of almost everything, above all fuel, because its supply line across the Mediterranean was under constant attack. British codebreakers, through Ultra, were reading much of the Axis traffic that showed which ships were sailing and what they carried, and many of them were found and sunk.", "forces": "The Eighth Army had three corps. In the north, Leese's XXX Corps held the 9th Australian, 51st (Highland), 2nd New Zealand, 1st South African and 4th Indian Divisions. In the south, Horrocks's XIII Corps had the 7th Armoured, 44th and 50th Divisions, with the 1st Greek Infantry Brigade Group and two Fighting French brigade groups. Lumsden's X Corps, with the 1st and 10th Armoured Divisions, was the armoured reserve meant to pass through the infantry. Playfair puts its fighting strength at 195,000, with 1,029 tanks other than light (including the first American Shermans), 908 field and medium guns and 1,451 anti-tank guns, 849 of them 6-pounders. The Desert Air Force, with attached American squadrons, held air superiority throughout.\n\nThe Panzerarmee had roughly 50,000 Germans and 54,000 Italians in the line, nearly every unit below establishment: the 15th and 21st Panzer, 90th and 164th Light Divisions and the Ramcke Parachute Brigade; the Italian Ariete and Littorio armoured divisions, Trento and Trieste motorised, Bologna, Brescia and Pavia infantry, and the Folgore paratroops. It had about 500 tanks other than light. Its defence rested on minefields, the \"Devil's Gardens\": a German engineer report of 21 October counted over 445,000 mines, nearly all anti-tank. Weak outposts stood in front; behind them, German-Italian armoured pairs (15th Panzer and Littorio in the north, 21st Panzer and Ariete in the south) waited close up to smother any break-in. It was strong in anti-tank guns, including 86 of the 88 mm Flak.", "course": "CDB90 records the whole battle as engagement 387 (EL ALAMEIN II), and its three phases as separate engagements; the narrative names them as it reaches them.\n\n**23–25 October: Lightfoot.** CDB90 engagement 388 (OPERATION LIGHTFOOT). At 21:40 on 23 October about 880 guns opened the barrage, and at 22:00 the infantry went forward. XXX Corps attacked with four divisions in line, Australians, Highlanders, New Zealanders and South Africans from north to south, on a front of about six miles towards the objective \"Oxalic\", three to five miles away. Behind them the sappers cleared lanes through the minefields for X Corps' tanks, largely by hand with detectors, since the belts were deeper than expected. By dawn most of the infantry had reached or nearly reached Oxalic and the New Zealanders and South Africans were on Miteirya Ridge, but an unsuspected minefield on the ridge held up the armour, which was jammed in the lanes. In the south XIII Corps' 7th Armoured Division gapped the first, \"January\", minefield but not the second, and the Fighting French, attacking near el Himeimat at 02:30, won only a lodgement. On the morning of the 24th Stumme drove forward to see for himself, came under fire and died of a heart attack. Thoma took over; Hitler asked Rommel to return, and he resumed command on the evening of the 25th.\n\n**26 October–1 November: the dogfight.** CDB90 engagement 389 (ALAMEIN BRIDGEHEAD EXPANSION). Montgomery switched to what he called \"crumbling\", wearing down the defence. On the night of 25/26 October the 9th Australian Division took Point 29 and about 240 prisoners, and Rommel spent days trying to retake it. He brought the 21st Panzer Division and part of the Ariete north, knowing he might lack the fuel to move them back; on the 26th the tankers Proserpina and Tergestea were sunk. Round Kidney Ridge, a feature whose very position was disputed on the featureless ground, the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade held the outpost \"Snipe\" on 27 October and knocked out 22 German and 10 Italian tanks; its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Turner, won the VC. In the south the Folgore beat off attacks by three divisions and the Free French on 25/26 October. On 29 October, learning that the 90th Light Division was committed near the coast, Montgomery moved his next blow farther south, and the Australians attacked north again on 30/31 October towards Thompson's Post and the coast road, holding \"the Saucer\" against fierce counter-attacks.\n\n**2–4 November: Supercharge.** CDB90 engagement 390 (OPERATION SUPERCHARGE). At 01:05 on 2 November the 2nd New Zealand Division, with the British 151st and 152nd Brigades under command, attacked west on a front of about 4,000 yards and took its objective. At 06:15 the 9th Armoured Brigade, 94 tanks strong, advanced behind a barrage towards the Rahman track and ran into a screen of anti-tank guns; it was left with about two dozen tanks. The 1st Armoured Division failed to break out, but Axis counter-attacks round Tel el Aqqaqir cost them about 100 tanks. That evening Thoma reported he would have at most 35 tanks next day, and Rommel began to pull back towards Fuka. At 15:30 on 3 November Hitler ordered him to hold his ground to the last; Rommel compromised, pulling the Afrika Korps back about six miles. On 4 November the 51st Division and the 5th Indian Brigade broke through along the Rahman track, Thoma was captured, and the Ariete lost nearly all its remaining tanks in a long fight with the 7th Armoured Division. At 17:30 Rommel ordered the retreat.", "aftermath": "Playfair gives Eighth Army losses as about 2,350 killed, 8,950 wounded and 2,260 missing, 13,560 in all, with nearly 500 tanks put out of action, most of them repairable. The Australians, about a tenth of the army, bore 22 per cent of its casualties; some 620 died in the October fighting. Axis losses can only be estimated, at upwards of 30,000 including prisoners. On 4 November Rommel had some 36 German tanks left of 249. The Italian infantry, without transport, were left behind; the Folgore's remnants were surrounded and forced to surrender on 6 November, though Ramcke and about 600 of his paratroops got away across the desert.\n\nWhether the British could have caught more of the Panzerarmee, in Playfair's words, \"will be argued as long as military history is read\". The pursuit failed to cut Rommel off at Fuka and Mersa Matruh, slowed by confusion, supply shortages, rain and caution. Four days after the battle the Allies landed in French North Africa, and by May 1943 the Axis armies in Africa had surrendered in Tunisia.\n\nAlamein was the first clear-cut, irreversible British victory over the Axis, and Churchill called it \"the end of the beginning\". It made Montgomery a national figure; his claim to sole credit and his caution are still argued over. Italian accounts stress that the Folgore had lost none of its positions when it was ordered back on 2 November.", "wargaming": "Alamein is a set-piece break-in battle, which makes it unusual among desert games: no open flank, no sweeping manoeuvre, but minefields, night attacks and a defender husbanding fuel and tanks. For the whole battle, an operational game with battalions or brigades as units and a turn per day or half-day works best; the corridors through the Devil's Gardens, Miteirya Ridge, Kidney Ridge, Point 29 and Tel el Aqqaqir are the key ground, with the Qattara Depression closing the southern flank. Minefields should be terrain that must be gapped lane by lane, under fire, with traffic jams behind.\n\nThe defender's fuel is the hidden clock. Every move north of the 21st Panzer and Ariete burns fuel that may not be replaced, and sinkings off Tobruk can be event cards; Ultra suggests giving the British player better intelligence than his opponent. The \"what ifs\" are rich: Rommel present from the first night, Stumme surviving, Montgomery pushing the armour through the lanes on the 24th regardless, or Hitler never sending the hold order and the Axis infantry getting away.\n\nAt the tactical level, at company or platoon scale on a table of a few feet, Snipe, the 9th Armoured Brigade's charge into the anti-tank guns on 2 November, the Australians at Point 29 and the Folgore's defence in the south all make tight, asymmetric scenarios. Night, dust and smoke should limit visibility." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:El Alamein dispositions Oct 1942.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "Dispositions of both armies at El Alamein on 23 October 1942.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/El_Alamein_dispositions_Oct_1942.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/El_Alamein_dispositions_Oct_1942.jpg/960px-El_Alamein_dispositions_Oct_1942.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Alamein_dispositions_Oct_1942.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Farawayman ( talk ) 13:18, 13 July 2009 (UTC)", "credit": "Own work (Own drawing)", "width": 2004 }, { "file": "File:2 Battle of El Alamein 001.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "Deployment of forces on 23 October 1942.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/2_Battle_of_El_Alamein_001.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/2_Battle_of_El_Alamein_001.png/960px-2_Battle_of_El_Alamein_001.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2_Battle_of_El_Alamein_001.png", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/", "artist": "Noclador", "credit": "Own work", "width": 1153 }, { "file": "File:The Campaign in North Africa 1940-1943 E18466.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "The night barrage that opened the battle, 23 October 1942.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/The_Campaign_in_North_Africa_1940-1943_E18466.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/The_Campaign_in_North_Africa_1940-1943_E18466.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Campaign_in_North_Africa_1940-1943_E18466.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Gladstone (Sgt)", "credit": "http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//39/media-39186/large.jpg This photograph E 18466 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums .", "width": 800 }, { "file": "File:Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army in North Africa, in the turret of his Grant command tank at El Alamein, 5 November 1942. E18980.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery in the turret of his Grant command tank, 5 November 1942.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Lieutenant_General_Bernard_Montgomery%2C_commanding_the_British_Eighth_Army_in_North_Africa%2C_in_the_turret_of_his_Grant_command_tank_at_El_Alamein%2C_5_November_1942._E18980.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Lieutenant_General_Bernard_Montgomery%2C_commanding_the_British_Eighth_Army_in_North_Africa%2C_in_the_turret_of_his_Grant_command_tank_at_El_Alamein%2C_5_November_1942._E18980.jpg/960px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lieutenant_General_Bernard_Montgomery,_commanding_the_British_Eighth_Army_in_North_Africa,_in_the_turret_of_his_Grant_command_tank_at_El_Alamein,_5_November_1942._E18980.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Keating G (Capt)", "credit": "http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//36/media-36493/large.jpg This photograph E 18980 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums .", "width": 3268 }, { "file": "File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-786-0327-19, Nordafrika, Erwin Rommel mit Offizieren.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Erwin Rommel with officers in North Africa, 1942.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-786-0327-19%2C_Nordafrika%2C_Erwin_Rommel_mit_Offizieren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-786-0327-19%2C_Nordafrika%2C_Erwin_Rommel_mit_Offizieren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-786-0327-19,_Nordafrika,_Erwin_Rommel_mit_Offizieren.jpg", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0 de", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en", "artist": "Otto", "credit": "This image was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) as part of a cooperation project . The German Federal Archive guarantees an authentic representation only using the originals (negative and/or positive), resp. the digitalization of the originals as provided by the Digital Image Archive .", "width": 800 }, { "file": "File:Commonwealth commanders General Leslie Morshead and General Bernard Freyberg confer during the El Alamein offensive.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead (9th Australian Division) and Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg (2nd New Zealand Division) confer in a shell hole during the El Alamein offensive.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Commonwealth_commanders_General_Leslie_Morshead_and_General_Bernard_Freyberg_confer_during_the_El_Alamein_offensive.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Commonwealth_commanders_General_Leslie_Morshead_and_General_Bernard_Freyberg_confer_during_the_El_Alamein_offensive.jpg/960px-Commonwealth_commanders_General_Leslie_Morshead_and_General_Bernard_Freyberg_confer_during_the_El_Alamein_offensive.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commonwealth_commanders_General_Leslie_Morshead_and_General_Bernard_Freyberg_confer_during_the_El_Alamein_offensive.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Captain John White", "credit": "https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.532538", "width": 1080 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Second Battle of El Alamein (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "I. S. O. Playfair, C. J. C. Molony et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume IV: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa (History of the Second World War, UK Military Series; HMSO, 1966)", "url": "https://www.generalstaff.org/WW2/Hist_UK/MedMiddleEastVol4.pdf", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "The Battle of Alamein (National Army Museum)", "url": "https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-alamein", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "Remembering 1942: The Battle of El Alamein (Australian War Memorial)", "url": "https://awm.gov.au/node/9636", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Second Battle of El Alamein order of battle (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein_order_of_battle", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "185th Paratroopers Division \"Folgore\" (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/185th_Paratroopers_Division_%22Folgore%22", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "Seconda battaglia di El Alamein (Italian Wikipedia)", "url": "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconda_battaglia_di_El_Alamein", "kind": "web" } ], "cdb90": [ 387, 388, 389, 390 ], "order": 156, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/el-alamein/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }