El Alamein

El Alamein is a town in the Northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt it takes its name from the twin peaked hill known as Tell al-Alamein, upon which it stands. Located on the Arab’s Gulf, it lies 106km West of Alexandria and 300km North-West of Cairo. The town is located on the site of the ancient city Antiphrai. Prior to the battles that took place there and near there during World War II, El Alamein was simply a sleepy stop along the modern North-coast railway.

El Alamein was the first clear-cut and irreversible victory inflicted by the British Army upon the Axis after years of frustrating setbacks.

The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942)

• A battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War.
• The advance of the Axis troops (Germany and Italy) on Alexandria was blunted by the Allies, stopping the Panzer Army Africa (Panzerarmee Afrika) that were trying to outflank the Allies’ position.
• The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Alexandria only 106km from El Alamein they were dangerously close to the ports and cities of Egypt, the base facilities of the Commonwealth forces and the Suez Canal.
•  However the Axis forces were too far from their forward operating base at Tripoli in Libya to occupy El Alamein indefinitely, which allowed both sides to accumulate supplies for more offensives, against the constraints of time and distance.

The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 4 November 1942)

• The second battle three months later still remains important to some of the countries that took part, New Zealand had a great contribution to the defense of El Alamein, especially the heavy role the Māori Battalion played.
• In August 1942, General Claude Auchinleck had been relieved as Commander-in-Chief (Middle East Command) and his successor, Lieutenant-General William Gott was killed on his way to replace him as commander of the Eighth Army. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was appointed and led the Eighth Army offensive.
• Winston Churchill, said of this victory: “Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” After the war, he wrote: “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.”
•  The British victory was the beginning of the end of the Western Desert Campaign, eliminating the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields and forced the Axis line all the way back to Tunisia.
• The battle revived the morale of the Allies, being the first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. The end of the battle coincided with the Allied invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch on 8 November, which opened a second front in North Africa.