SkipCaptcha
797
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 1:
Line 1: + +
no edit summary
The First Battle of El Alamein took place near railway depot near the sea, between 1 and 27 July. The British Commonwealth forces, under General Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, emerged victorious in the battle, having stopped the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel in Egypt. The battle marked the end of several Axis victories obtained at Gazala, Tobruk, Mersa Matruh, Fuka and elsewhere, and was the first in a series of battles which would result in the liberation of French Algeria and Tunisia from Axis forces, and the invasion of Italy.
The First Battle of El Alamein took place near railway depot near the sea, between 1 and 27 July. The British Commonwealth forces, under General Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, emerged victorious in the battle, having stopped the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel in Egypt. The battle marked the end of several Axis victories obtained at Gazala, Tobruk, Mersa Matruh, Fuka and elsewhere, and was the first in a series of battles which would result in the liberation of French Algeria and Tunisia from Axis forces, and the invasion of Italy.
The Afrika Korps had been successfully fighting their way ever closer to the Egyptian border. Italian "battleship convoys" personally commanded by Admiral [[Angelo Iachino]], and good solid intelligence from the Italian Military Information Service (Servizio Informazione Militare or SIM) obtained through theft from the US Embassy in Rome, had greatly assisted Rommel in winning battles at Gazala, Tobruk, Mersa Matruh and Fuka. Unfortunately for Rommel, the deciphered daily reports to Washington coming from Colonel [[Bonner Fellers]] (US military attache in Cairo), stopped almost a week after the fall of Tobruk. To make matters worse, his divisions were now running very low on fuel. The scenario was soon set for a major Allied counteroffensive, that aimed to completely break through the Italian divisions and the panzer divisions sent forward to assist them.