Difference between revisions of "First Battle of El Alamein"
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On 1 July 1942, the Axis forces commenced their advance. However, the Afrika Korps encountered disorganized but spirited resistance from the Indians and South Africans, forcing the ''Trento'' Division and supporting 7th Bersaglieri Regiment to take up defensive positions, and defeating the attacks from the 21st Panzer Division and 90th Light Division. | On 1 July 1942, the Axis forces commenced their advance. However, the Afrika Korps encountered disorganized but spirited resistance from the Indians and South Africans, forcing the ''Trento'' Division and supporting 7th Bersaglieri Regiment to take up defensive positions, and defeating the attacks from the 21st Panzer Division and 90th Light Division. | ||
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| + | On 3 July, the 4th New Zealand Brigade, supported by four artillery batteries, attacked the ''Ariete'' Armoured Division forward positions, taking 350 prisoners and capturing or destroying 24 field guns and six or eight tanks. Rommel lambasted the performance of the ''Ariete'' and in a report to General [[Albert Kesselring]], would claim the Italian armoured division had lost one-hundred tanks in the New Zealand infantry attack. | ||
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| + | Determined to encircle and capture the rest of the ''Ariete'', the New Zealander infantry attacked again on 5 July, but were repelled by heavy fire from the ''Brescia'' Division dug in near El Mreir. | ||
Revision as of 23:45, June 14, 2016
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 Benghazi, Tobruk and Mersa Matruh. Unfortunately for Rommel, the British discovered this and 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.
El Mreir
On 1 July 1942, the Axis forces commenced their advance. However, the Afrika Korps encountered disorganized but spirited resistance from the Indians and South Africans, forcing the Trento Division and supporting 7th Bersaglieri Regiment to take up defensive positions, and defeating the attacks from the 21st Panzer Division and 90th Light Division.
On 3 July, the 4th New Zealand Brigade, supported by four artillery batteries, attacked the Ariete Armoured Division forward positions, taking 350 prisoners and capturing or destroying 24 field guns and six or eight tanks. Rommel lambasted the performance of the Ariete and in a report to General Albert Kesselring, would claim the Italian armoured division had lost one-hundred tanks in the New Zealand infantry attack.
Determined to encircle and capture the rest of the Ariete, the New Zealander infantry attacked again on 5 July, but were repelled by heavy fire from the Brescia Division dug in near El Mreir.