Second Battle of El Alamein

The Second Battle of El Alamein took place from 23 October to 5 November 1942, outside the El Alamein train station near the sea and the large Quattara Depression to the south. General Bernard Montgomery commanded the British 8th Army and General Erwin Rommel commanded the Panzerarmee Afrika' during this battle.

General Rommel's Italo-German forces had been pushing ever closer to the Suez Canal and the oil-rich fields of Egypt, thanks in large part to the Italian "battleship convoys" (under Admiral Angelo Iachino) that delivered much needed fuel and tanks, and intercepted Allied signals from the Italian Military Information Service (Servizio Informazione Militare or SIM), that helped Rommel obtain the Axis victories at Gazala, Tobruk, Mersa Matruh and Fuka.

Unfortunately for the Axis, this important source of intelligence intercepted from the reports that the US military attache in Cairo, Colonel Bonner Fellers sent to Washington, stopped at the start of the First Battle of El Alamein. Rommel then tried to overrun the opposing British Commonwealth forces during the Battle of Alam el Halfa, but this attack also failed. The scenario was now set for what would prove be the final confrontation in Egypt, that would result in the Axis retreat across Egypt and deep into Tunisia.