The Battle of El Alamein (True Combat)

The British had built a defensive line at El-Alamein because the Qattara Depression to the south was impassable to mechanized forces.

A narrow choke point prevented the German panzers from operating on their preferred southern flank with open terrain. Now that the British had moved over to the offensive, the proposed battlefield also suited the British Eighth Army, whose main strength lay in its artillery and infantry formations. The British also enjoyed the invaluable advantage of air superiority over the battlefield.

Aware that an attack was imminent , Rommel had prepared his defenses as best he could, sowing hundreds of thousands of antitank and antipersonnel mines along his front to slow any British advance. Rommel returned to Germany to recuperate from illness shortly before the British offensive was launched, command passing to a subordinate.

The British would break into the Axis line and force them to counterattack. On the night of 23—24 October a barrage from more than guns heralded the offensive; British sappers, followed by infantry and tanks, advanced to clear paths through the minefields. Rommel, meanwhile, mounted spirited counterattacks.

For a while it seemed that the Axis might bring the British offensive to a halt. The German minefields and accurate antitank fire produced a mounting toll of knocked-out British tanks. But progress by the infantry, especially the Australian and New Zealand Divisions, opened up corridors through the Axis defenses that the British could exploit. On 2 November Rommel signaled to Hitler that the battle was lost.

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Although initially refused permission to retreat, Rommel began the withdrawal of his German units, leaving his Italian allies—who lacked motor transport—to be mopped up by the British. By 4 November the motorized elements of the Axis were in full retreat, and because of the sluggish British follow-up they were allowed to escape virtually unscathed.

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The Axis forces were now being squeezed in the Allied vice, and their expulsion from North Africa was only a question of time. Losses in second battle: Axis, 9, dead, 15, wounded, and 30, captured of , troops; Allied, 4, dead, 9, wounded of , troops.

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This contribution has not yet been formally edited by Britannica. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: He finally chose to begin his…. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. In June, the British had succeeded in driving Rommel into a defensive position in Libya. But Rommel repelled repeated air and tank attacks, delivering heavy General Erwin Rommel was dispatched to North Sent with a small German force to help the Axis against the British after the Italians had suffered severe defeat, Rommel—reaching Tripoli in February The battle is infamous as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare: From August through February In the summer and fall of , German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date.

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An expeditionary force commanded by U. Major General John P. In September , after the victorious end of the Normandy campaign, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery devised a daring operation to open the way to the Ruhr by seizing a bridgehead north of the Rhine, at Arnhem. On September 17, Operation Market, the largest airborne and glider Anthony Eden on the Battle of Britain.

Battle of Britain In the summer and fall of , German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. Battle of Arnhem In September , after the victorious end of the Normandy campaign, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery devised a daring operation to open the way to the Ruhr by seizing a bridgehead north of the Rhine, at Arnhem.