Major Battles in World War II

EL ALAMEIN

El Alamein is in Egypt, located about 150 miles from Cairo and around 66 miles from Alexandria. The commander of the Axis was Erwin Rommel and the commander for the Allies was Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery, or Monty, as some called him, was respected by the men in the Allied forces. He spoke with confidence and put much emphasis on organization and morale. The war began when Rommel decided to hit the Allies in the south. Naturally, Monty successfully knew this attack was coming, because, not only did Rommel previously try this type of attack, but he had gotten a hold of Rommel’s battle plans. The plans also showed the supply routes of Rommel. In August of 1942, Rommel was only receiving 33% of supplies that he needed. On the other hand, the Allies were getting vast amounts of supplies through the Suez Canal. By the end of August, the Allies were ready for an attack. They placed many land mines south of El Alamein, and the German tanks were severely hit by those. Many German tanks were also easily picked off by Allied fighter planes. A sandstorm provided temporary cover for the Axis tanks, but in the end Rommel retreated. Later, the Allies attacked in what is known as “Operation Lightfoot.” The goal of this was to have infantry cross over mines without setting them off and having engineers create a 24 foot wide path so that the Allies could drive their tanks along in a single file line. However, the Allied infantry did not get as far as planned, and when one tank stopped, all of the tanks had to, therefore making progress slow. Monty later launched “Operation Supercharge” which was a surprise attack on the Axis troops. Rommel used tank against tank warfare, but outnumber, he was beaten. On November 4^th, Rommel retreated. It was significant because it ended the Axis hopes of gaining access to the Suez Canal, taking over Egypt, and gaining access of Middle Eastern Oil Fields.