THE FIRST EI ALAMEIN CLASH IN JULY 1942, HOW THE BRITISH 8th ARMY SUFFERED A BITTER DEFEAT IN GAZELLE.

THE FIRST EI ALAMEIN CLASH IN JULY 1942, HOW THE BRITISH 8th ARMY SUFFERED A BITTER DEFEAT IN GAZELLE.

Although the Axis commanders were taken aback at the violence of the assault, the Eighth Army’s progress was painfully slow; the British armour failing to get to grips with the enemy, On 2nd November, Rommel signalled to Hitler that the battle was lost.

The first El Alamein clash came in July 1942. The British 8th Army had suffered a bitter defeat in Gazala, Libya, in June.

 Rommel had pushed the British and Commonwealth Troops back into Egypt.

 Then Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Claude Auchinleck made his stand at El Alamein.

Despite stopping Rommel in his tracks, Auchinleck was relieved of command in early August. 

His replacement would be General Bernard Montgomery: the man who would finally kick the Axis out of North Africa once and for all.

By mid-October 1942, Montgomery could deploy approximately double the number of men and tanks available to Rommel’s German-Italian army. 

The British also enjoyed the invaluable advantage of air superiority over the battlefield.

 Aware that an attack was imminent, Rommel had prepared his defences as best he could, sowing hundreds of thousands of anti-tank and anti-personnel 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.

Monty’s plan comprised a diversionary attack to the south, spearheaded by Free French troops, while the main attack would come in the northern sector, close to the coast.

 The British would break into the Axis line and force them to counterattack. In the process, the British would wear down the enemy’s offensive capability.

On the night of 23rd–24th October, a barrage from more than 800 guns heralded the offensive; British sappers, followed by infantry and tanks, advanced to clear paths through the minefields.

 Although the Axis commanders were taken aback at the violence of the assault, the Eighth Army’s progress was painfully slow; the British armour failing to get to grips with the enemy. 

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 corridors through the Axis defences that the British could exploit!

On 2nd November, Rommel signalled to Hitler that the battle was lost.

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