El Alamein was the major turning point in North Africa in World War II. El Alamein is sixty miles west of Alexandria, Egypt. German troops attacked the British troops at El Alamein in 1942. The German-Italian troops were led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The British eighth army was led by Gen. Bernard Montgomery. The Germans were attacking, and the British were defending. No longer enjoying air parity, his line of communication and supply continually harassed by the Desert Air force. was starved of Petrol and practically immobile. Rommel himself was in hospital in Germany. The balance of forces was now about two to one in Montgomery's favor. The Axis army, temporarily under the command of General Stumme, was 108,000 strong, and included some 53,000 Germans. It had about 600 tanks. They had 345 aircrafts and only 24 of the powerful 88mm guns used so effectively in the previous battles. The Axis defensive position, which was very heavily mined, was five miles deep and forty miles long. The Eighth army, however, numbered some 220,000 men, 1,351 tanks. Of the 1,196 in the forward area, 1,021 were fit for action on the evening of October 23rd. The British had 1,400 anti-tank guns, 884 pieces of artillery, and 832 field guns. The RAF had over 900 planes. for once the British had a numerical advantage, and a commander who had an idea of how to beat Rommel.

Montgomery could not afford to lose because it would leave Egypt wide open for invasion. Montgomery would also lose the Suez Canal and the oil fields. Montgomery carried out large scale rehearsal of his planned destruction of Rommel's army after changing his original plans to destroy the armor first, instead he decided to destroy the infantry and contain the armor. The Eighth Army's commander remained doubtful. The three Divisional commander of 30 Corps had little confidence in the early breakout by the armour, the facts being in the open desert it is impossible to mask the signs of an offensive. Instead, Montgomery laid a deception plan, calculated to make the Germans think that an attack was coming on the desert plank. With mock-ups of staging areas, guns and armor in place.

The opening attack by the Eighth army started at 9:30 P.M., October 23rd, 1942. It won considerable success for the Army. During the night XXX Corps fought its way onto Miteirya Ridge, and on the southern sector, XIII corps made some progress. The deep minefields and stiff, if uneven, defences caused a good deal of delay. General Stumme had little idea as to what was happening so there was no quick enemy reaction. He drove, unescorted, to the 90th light to try and find out what was going on. He was fired on, probably by the Australians, and died of heart failure while his driver was trying to get away. His body was not found for 24 hours. And at a crucial moment the German Army was without a leader. It defended itself with revenge but there was no counter-attack. The crisis of the battle soon came. The problem, although the battle was going well, was to get the armor forward through the narrow lanes in the minefields.

During the night of October 25th, Gatehouse's 10th Armored Division tried to push forward. there was considerable confusion among the gapping parties and vehicles became double-banked nose to tail. About 10:00, a German bomber set fire to 25 vehicles carrying gas and ammunition, and started a blaze which went on all night. Gatehouse wanted to call off the attack and Lumsden (X corps) rather agreed with hi. Fortunately, de Guigard realizing it was of crucial importance and summoned Lumsden and Leese to the Headquarters and woke Montgomery. Montgomery made it abundantly clear that his original plan was to be carried out, and told Gatehouse on the telephone.

Before 8:00 the following morning, one of Gatehouse's brigades reported itself to be 2,000 yards west of the minefield area. The New Zealand Division had also fought its way clear, counter attack by the 15th Panzer were repeated with losses. In the south, the 7th Armored Division had got through the first minefield on the night of October 24th, but had halted. Montgomery wanted to use the formation later, so he called off the attack before it became too serious. Rommel reappeared on the evening of the 25th and relieved Stumme's replacement. He found that the 15th Panzer only had 31 tanks left, gas was short, constant air and artillery attack were inflicting heavy casualties on his troops. Morale was affected, Rommel determined to throw in his reserves, drive the British back and retake Kidney Ridge.

By the morning of the 26th, Montgomery's first attack has lost its momentum and casualties were mounting. About 200 British tanks had been knocked out but XXX Corps had taken most of its objectives. The Eighth army had taken about 2,000 prisoners, British intelligence were possibly over estimating the number of casualties of the Axis forces.

Rommel's forces attacked on the evening of October 27th, but was baffled by the combination of bombing, heavy armor and anti-tank guns. The 2nd Rifle Brigade knocked out 37 enemy tanks. Their commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Vic Turner won the Victoria Cross. Montgomery came up with a new plan, Lumsden pushed west and north-west of Kidney Ridge, while Leese was regrouping for his next major attack. The 7th Armored Division was brought up from the south and the New Zealanders were taken out of the line.

October 29th, The Australian Division launched a attack in order to make Rommel commit his remaining reserves. Advancing along the northern flank of Kidney Ridge, they headed for the coast. Rommel, who had doubt about the outcome, reacted as Montgomery wished. He struck back at the Australians with his reserves, including 31st Panzer and 90th Light Division. The Australians held firm, and by doing so paved the way for Operation Supercharge. Rommel thought about a withdrawal to Fuka. He had only 90 tanks left, while the British still had some 800 tanks.

Supercharge began on the night of November 1st and was held up by the German anti-tank screen. The Germans tanks were further reduced by this action.

The German retreat had already begun when, on November 3rd, orders came from Hitler forbidding any withdrawal. This granted Montgomery another 24 hours to destroy his enemies.

On the November 4th, the British finally broke through.

Exhausted, the British were unable to continue the pursuit and completely destroy the Afrika Corps. Rommel's forces suffered 30,000 captured, and between seven and twenty thousand killed or wounded. Figures are inaccurate as best, in addition Rommel lost 1000 guns and 450 of his 600 tanks. During the retreat the Italians lost another 75 tanks for lack of fuel. By November 15th, Rommel had no more than fifty tanks left. Montgomery's casualties numbered 13500, about eight percent of his force, although 500 tanks were put out of action, only 150 were beyond repair. 100 guns had been destroyed.