For educational purposes
In 1942, after a crushing defeat in France and the loss of Singapore to Japan, British forces produced Germany's first major defeat at El Alamein, in northwestern Egypt.
It was an unqualified success, and signaled to the British that the war was not hopeless.
As Churchill later remarked, "Before Alamein we never had a victory; after Alamein we never had a defeat."
In 1942, after a crushing defeat in France and the loss of Singapore to Japan, British forces produced Germany's first major defeat at El Alamein, in northwestern Egypt.
It was an unqualified success, and signaled to the British that the war was not hopeless.
As Churchill later remarked, "Before Alamein we never had a victory; after Alamein we never had a defeat."
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LearningTranscript
00:00This is El Alamein in Egypt.
00:11It's an unimpressive ridge set in a waste of sand, gravel and rock, a road, a railway,
00:18a tiny settlement and little else.
00:25It was here that British troops, for the first time in World War II, showed that they could
00:31decisively beat the Germans, although victory was achieved only after a monumental tactical
00:37struggle between Field Marshal Rommel and General Montgomery.
00:45The significance of this first major Allied triumph of the war was not lost on Winston
00:50Churchill who said, before Alamein we never had a victory, after Alamein we never had
00:56a defeat.
01:20Three distant battles at the end of 1942 marked the turn of the Second World War.
01:50The greatest of these, at Stalingrad in Russia, saw the entrapment and destruction of an entire
01:57German army.
01:58At Alamein the numbers involved were far smaller and the German force was not destroyed, but,
02:09like the third decisive battle at Guadalcanal in the Pacific, victory was not to be measured
02:14by a huge pile of enemy dead.
02:16Alamein was crucial simply because it was, at last, a victory, something that British
02:28forces had hitherto been unable to achieve.
02:31The overall position of the Allies in 1942 wasn't particularly good.
02:39The Germans were on something of a roll.
02:41They'd done extremely, extremely well in defeating France and the Low Countries.
02:46In just six weeks in 1940 they were, up until the middle of 1942, quite successful in their
02:52invasion of the Soviet Union.
02:54And also the Allies had been put back in North Africa to an extent that they were really
02:59worried whether they could actually hold on to that important part of the southern Mediterranean.
03:05There was still a possibility that the Axis powers could pull off a series of strategic
03:11level victories, possibly knock the British Empire out of the war, not Britain, but large
03:16parts of the Empire out of the war, and quite possibly knock the Soviet Union out of the war.
03:23Between 1940 and 1942, Britain and her Commonwealth poured all the men and war material they could
03:30spare into North Africa.
03:34For Hitler, North Africa was really a sideshow.
03:38But for Churchill, it was a deadly contest, pitting the best of British troops against
03:44the enemy.
03:46North Africa was so important to Churchill and to Britain because of the traditional
03:51links with Empire, with India, as a staging route for aircraft, but more importantly because
03:57it was the only land theatre of war that we had against Germany.
04:03If they were going to fight their primary enemy at this stage, the only place they could
04:08do that was in North Africa.
04:12For the Germans, there could be no question of refocusing their strategy in the general
04:17direction of Africa before a decisive victory of some sort had been achieved in the Soviet Union.
04:29But for all the British efforts in North Africa, results were disappointing and a wearisome
04:34game of long-distance military seesaw developed.
04:42The first moves came in December 1940, when a small British force chased a much larger
04:49Italian army back 500 miles from the Egyptian border to El Agheila.
04:59In February 1941, however, German forces arrived and the picture changed.
05:05Commanded by the vigorous and tactically astute Field Marshal Owen Rommel, they pushed back
05:10the British forces, who were weakened by orders to reinforce Greece and Crete, back to Dubrovnik.
05:22Rommel was that marvellous, innovative improviser.
05:28He was a superb trainer and he was a superb commander who led from the front.
05:33He knew what his army could do, had absolute confidence in it and must have been a logistic
05:40nightmare because he was prepared to take a gamble.
06:11There's no doubt about it that there was these sort of joking references, what a pity
06:18we can't have Rommel running 7th Armoured Division, we'd do quite well, and things like that.
06:25A second British offensive began in November 1941, and after heavy fighting, the siege
06:33of Tobruk was lifted.
06:39We did manage to get further on, the Germans did pull back, and in fact we then did extremely
06:49well and got right round the bulge of Libya, past Benghazi and down to the Gulf of Sirte,
06:57a place called El Agheila.
07:00And the same thing really happened again, the lines of communication became so extended
07:06that, whereas the German lines of course contracted, so it was easier for them to keep supply,
07:15and for the second time Rommel counter-attacked.
07:22The Germans swept eastwards, capturing Tobruk in a couple of days, pushing on deep into
07:27Egypt an advance of some 800 miles.
07:36When the German forces finally drew breath and paused in July, they were utterly exhausted
07:43and short of fuel, food and water.
07:48But they were just 80 miles from Alexandria.
07:51The Suez Canal, the lifeline of the British Empire, now lay within their grasp.
07:57Just 300 miles further on was the vital oil terminal at Haifa.
08:03The threat was obvious and deadly.
08:06If the German Sixth Army in Russia could break through to the Caucasus and beyond, and if
08:11Rommel could advance past Cairo, the German pincers would meet in the Middle Eastern oil
08:17fields, the major source of Allied fuel.
08:21Furthermore, western India would be threatened, just as the Japanese were closing in from
08:27the east.
08:29A German-Japanese link-up somewhere in the Middle East or in India would no doubt have
08:35been a dramatic, even a cataclysmic event.
08:40For one thing, the Lend-Lease route through Iran would have been cut, and India very likely
08:52being cast into rebellion.
08:55It was little wonder then that in 1942 the British public's confidence in the direction
09:01of the war reached its lowest point, perhaps lower even than in 1940.
09:10For it seemed that the arrival of two new powerful Allies, the Soviet Union and the
09:16United States, had only served to make the overall situation worse.
09:21Britain was terrified that the Soviet Union would actually collapse in exactly the same
09:25way France did.
09:26So military resources, material, tanks, aircraft, guns, were diverted to the Soviet Union.
09:34Now, six months later, Japan's assault on the United States and the associated attacks
09:39on Hong Kong and the British in Malaya and the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies had precisely
09:45the same effect.
09:47The British had to divert resources from the Middle East, and so there was a general weakening
09:53as the Far East actually siphoned off resources to deal with the Japanese.
10:03These dire long-term threats to the Allies sprang directly from the reverses of the North
10:08African campaign, which were harder to bear because, from early 1941 onwards, the British
10:15greatly outnumbered Rommel's forces.
10:21At the crucial Battle of Gazala in December 1941, the British fielded more than 500 tanks.
10:29Rommel was able to call on half that number, and only half of those were German.
10:34With little more than 100 tanks, Rommel destroyed more than 400 British armoured vehicles.
10:41There was also an alarming discrepancy between British and German losses.
10:46In successive days in December 1941, the 22nd Armoured Brigade lost 60 tanks while
10:53destroying just 14.
10:58There were three main reasons for the British Army's lack of success in Africa during
11:05the early years of the war.
11:07Firstly, German tanks were superior in design to their British counterparts.
11:12Secondly, the Germans had developed battlefield tactics that took full advantage of their
11:17tanks' greater abilities.
11:20Last but not least was the bold leadership of Rommel, the Desert Fox, at the head of
11:25a thoroughly professional army that had inflicted defeat upon a succession of British generals
11:30before 1942.
11:42The Germans were very experienced.
12:12They were experienced in armoured warfare, and therefore very much used their tanks and
12:15their aircraft in close cooperation to try and achieve a result.
12:19The British were still finding their way, they were still trying to find a way of integrating
12:24armour, infantry, tanks, airpower and supporting arms, and it was very much a learning curve.
12:33Of course, the conditions in which the North African campaign was fought were like no other
12:38theatre of battle in the Second World War.
12:45It was an ideal ground for operating armour and vehicles.
12:53I mean, there's no trees, no grass, just sand and rubble, and it was so hot, there's
13:00120 in the shade. So if you were a little bit that way inclined, you could go off the
13:02rocker.
13:07It was an ideal ground for operating armour and vehicles.
13:14I mean, there's no trees, no grass, just sand and rubble, and it was so hot, there's 120
13:21in the shade. So if you were a little bit that way inclined, you could go off the rocker.
13:31The difficulties with fighting a war in the desert were the fact that you had the heat,
13:37you had the lack of water, and the dust, the sand, the stones, created their own problems
13:44because wear and tear on tyres, on vehicles, dust in the weapons.
13:51And so after a time, men inevitably broke down.
14:00And so after a time, men inevitably broke down.
14:09The forces on both sides were quite small in number. There were four German and Italian
14:14divisions, who were opposed by between eight and ten British divisions, with a few hundred
14:20tanks on each side. The forces were small in part because neither side could spare more
14:26men for the campaign, but mainly because it was more or less the limit each side could
14:32supply.
14:35With the Mediterranean effectively closed to Allied shipping, British forces had to
14:40be convoyed on the long sea journey around South Africa, a trip of two to three months.
14:49The Germans had a shorter supply line across the Mediterranean from Italy, though this
14:55was still a journey of some several hundred miles that was vulnerable to air and sea attack
15:00from Malta.
15:26Everything had to be shipped in, not only petrol and ammunition, but food and water too.
15:32Everything had to be shipped in, not only petrol and ammunition, but food and water too.
15:42All the people used to come and get their water, and we were supplied by a Palestinian
15:47group that brought in bowzers. They brought up thousands of gallons and put them into
15:53our support tanks, and then we fed the troops.
16:03The supply difficulties in part explain the North African seesaw pattern of advance and
16:09retreat.
16:11It was like pulling a rubber band. The British would advance as far as Benghazi, the rubber
16:17band, which was the supply line, would be stretched as far as it could go, and then
16:23almost, by its own volition, pull them back as soon as some German pressure was applied.
16:29And the reverse happened for the Germans.
16:32The retreating army grew stronger as the position of the pursuing forces grew weaker.
16:38This was the position that faced the Allies in the crucial summer of 1942, and it was
16:44the arrival of a British commander to match the tenacity and guile of Rommel that signalled
16:49an upturn in Allied fortunes.
16:55Montgomery could probably best be described as a very excellent trainer of men, very stubborn
17:01to the point of bloody-mindedness, and not easily intimidated.
17:08Montgomery projected an image, it was a very carefully constructed image, of a general
17:14who was a meticulous planner. He was calm, he was unflappable, and he used to boast about
17:20the fact that when a battle started, he would actually turn in and go to sleep, because
17:25the fighting was as good as over as soon as Montgomery had instructed his subordinate
17:30commanders.
17:32Where Rommel was bold, however, Montgomery was cautious. He knew the limitations of his
17:38army. It was perhaps his great achievement in the war that, in North Africa and later
17:43in Europe, he fought to the strength of his country's brave but limited citizen armies.
17:53The strengths of Eight Army were that it had fought together for a number of years. It
17:58was made up of very strong divisions that were loyal to their commander, would follow
18:04out the commander's orders, would fight until they dropped, and also had a great deal of
18:10pride in what they were fighting for. They were good, veteran, professional, well-trained
18:16troops.
18:17Yet, under its first commanders, particularly Auchinleck, it never reached its potential.
18:25It never had that person that could bind it and make it something bigger than the sum
18:32of its component parts, until it got Montgomery.
18:36Montgomery demonstrated his considerable leadership skills during the first battle he commanded
18:41against the Afrika Korps at Alam Halfa in August 1942, sometimes called the First Battle
18:48of El Alamein.
18:51When Montgomery took over the Eighth Army, he judged it incapable of offensive operations.
18:57It needed rest, retraining and resupply. So he made a virtue of necessity, deciding that
19:04when Rommel attacked again, the Eighth Army would stand entirely on the defensive to repel
19:10him.
19:14Undoubtedly, at the time that Montgomery came out there, morale was very poor. I mean, it
19:20again, it's documented that there were all sorts of plans of people sort of evacuating
19:26and all that sort of thing. And then Monty came out and more or less said there would
19:30be no retreat. Nobody, we stand here and fight, and if necessary, we die.
19:40This tactic was possible because El Alamein was one place where Rommel could not use his
19:45favourite manoeuvre, a long outflanking hook southward into the desert and then around
19:51and behind the British positions.
19:56Rommel's outflanking manoeuvre was very much in keeping with the tradition of German
20:01manoeuvre warfare, which whenever possible sought to outflank the enemy instead of seeking
20:07a head-on clash. Due to the geography of the North African theatre, this always meant that
20:14it had to be a right hook. Even so, surprisingly enough, he achieved a complete and utter surprise
20:22on the enemy side with this on a number of occasions all the way up to First Alamein.
20:29Forty miles south of El Alamein lay a great sea of impassable soft sand, the Katara Depression.
20:37Movement across it was impossible. Rommel's hook this time would have to be shorter and
20:43therefore easier to defend, and in the centre of the British line.
20:55Montgomery prepared thoroughly for Rommel's attack. Halfway down the British position
21:00and running at right angles to it lay the Alam Halfa Ridge. Dense minefields were secretly
21:08laid in front of the position, and strong British forces were concealed on and beside it.
21:15Rommel clearly decided on a quick breakthrough here, to be followed by the usual attack on
21:20British supplies, transport and communications.
21:27This time British tanks were dug into the ridge, their crews under strict orders not
21:33to move out and meet the Germans. Montgomery knew that such a move would provide Rommel
21:38with the mobile battle at which he excelled, and would inevitably lead to the destruction
21:44of the British armour.
21:47The life expectancy of tank crews was pretty poor, because our tanks were so inferior to
21:53the German tanks. We never had parity with the German tanks. And the other, of course,
21:58the other thing which killed our tanks more than almost anything else was their anti-tank
22:03guns, their ground guns.
22:08Rommel thrust against the south of the British positions, employing the cream of his army,
22:13the 21st and 15th Panzer Divisions, with the 90th Light and the Italian Brescia Divisions
22:20for infantry support.
22:23Encountering dense minefields and strong resistance along the Alam Halfa Ridge, they tried to
22:29find a gap between it and the New Zealand Division, but their repeated attacks met with
22:35determined resistance.
22:53Within three days, Rommel recognised that he could not break through and began a slow
22:59withdrawal. By the 7th of September 1942, all fighting in the area had ended.
23:13After Alam Halfa, Owen Rommel knew that their time window for footfall was too short, and
23:19Owen Rommel knew that their time window for reaching the Nile Delta, for reaching Cairo,
23:25had gone. And unless there was a major change of policy, he was never ever going to get
23:32the supplies which would allow him to take on British Eighth Army again. Basically, the
23:39Axis forces were now looking at a static situation, and the initiative had now passed to the British.
23:50General Montgomery had signalled his intentions by winning the first round of the fight, the
23:55defensive battle. Now he had to prepare his army for the much more difficult task of attacking
24:02the German forces. Specifically, the Eighth Army had to be transformed in the three areas
24:08of weakness that had so far cost it so dear – equipment, leadership and tactics.
24:19New and better equipment was on the way. A big convoy had just arrived with 300 new
24:24American Sherman tanks. With the 200 Grant tanks already received from America, Montgomery
24:34now had a fine force of tanks armed with 75mm guns at his disposal.
24:41Hundreds of the new 6-pounder anti-tank guns also arrived to replace the inadequate 2-pounders.
24:52Also vital to the cause was the Allies' ever-increasing superiority in air power.
25:03The Allies began to launch air raids upon German ground forces, upon their airfields,
25:09upon their ports, and slowly but surely, the Germans, with fewer resources and less
25:14able to resupply themselves and reinforce, get ground down. The Allies, meanwhile, they
25:19find that by launching these offensives, their morale is raised, and very importantly, the
25:24United States Air Force comes to their aid.
25:30The new men and materials would need time to be trained and become desert-worthy. But
25:36time was one thing that was short.
25:42Discontent was brewing over the general conduct of the war. Malta badly needed a relief convoy,
25:49which could only sail when Britain controlled the airfields in Libya. In addition, Operation
25:55Torch, the secret Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa, was planned for early
26:00November, and a British victory in Egypt was needed to persuade French forces to cooperate
26:06with the landings. Montgomery, though, would not be moved by Churchill's insistence that
26:12an early attack be made. Here was a leader who knew his own mind and was confident of
26:18outright victory.
26:19British battle tactics and strategy were also changed. Montgomery's plan provided for an
26:35attack in the north, and not, as Rommel had done, in the south. Although the north was
26:41more heavily defended, Montgomery planned to avoid a risky battle of manoeuvre which
26:46the British army was not yet capable of winning, and the north, with the coastal road, was
26:52the key to the breakthrough that would be fatal for Rommel.
27:00The plan was to attack with infantry. The assault would be made at night, but under
27:05the light of a full moon, and the troops were ordered to pierce the German defences, which
27:10were several miles deep in places, and then wait for tanks to follow them in.
27:18The tanks would begin their attack a few hours after the infantry, with sappers clearing
27:24lanes for them in the deep German minefields. Upon linking up with the infantry, they would
27:32position themselves on ground of their own choosing, as Montgomery's order put it, to
27:37repel the inevitable German tank counter-attack. From here, they were to give cover to their
27:44own infantry as they proceeded to crumble away the German defences, which would allow
27:49more British forces through.
27:55Montgomery was essentially engaging in a good, late First World War, bite-and-hold operation.
28:02He was not going to try for an initial breakthrough. This came straight from 1917 and 1918. We
28:10were reverting to a kind of battle that we understood.
28:17Elaborate deceptions were carried out to convince Rommel that the British attack would be made
28:22to the south of El Alamein.
28:25Our job, as of the 7th Armoured Division job, was to act as a faint attack down in the south.
28:34We saw these large numbers of dummy tanks, which our people were dotting about all over
28:43the place. Most elaborate camouflaged formations were brought up and put in position overnight.
28:53Dummy water pipelines were put in position, all with the idea of defeating the German
29:00reconnaissance planes.
29:04Despite these careful preparations, Montgomery expected some 10,000 British casualties and
29:11a battle that would last a week. But he also hoped, in his own words, to hit Rommel for
29:17six right out of Africa.
29:24The Battle of El Alamein
29:35Although Rommel knew that a British offensive was coming, neither he nor anyone else knew
29:40exactly when or where. As it was, on 23rd September, Rommel was away on leave in the
29:48Austrian Alps, seeking to improve his increasingly poor health.
29:56Operation Lightfoot began at 9.40pm on the night of 23rd October, with one of the biggest
30:03artillery barrages of the war.
30:07It was a huge firework, something I had never seen before. It was not quite bright yet,
30:13and it was a single flash and smoke screen in front of us.
30:30A thousand guns opening fire suddenly in the still desert night stunned the unsuspecting
30:37Germans, and four Allied infantry divisions were soon advancing on a ten-mile front.
30:45The primary offensive force that Montgomery used at El Alamein was 30 Corps, and starting
30:52at the coast and working inland you had Moorshead's 9th Australian Division, a superb veteran
31:01division, then you had the 51st Highlanders, and then you had Freyberg and his New Zealanders,
31:08the 2nd New Zealand Division, and then you had the 4th Indian Division, and then the
31:131st South African Division. So it was an amazing collection of, by this stage, largely veteran
31:21formations.
31:23The advance faltered as they penetrated the main German line of defence, a series of interlocking
31:29gun pits and foxholes defended by machine guns, a nightmare to attack through the thick
31:35minefields. In bitter and confused fighting, two of the divisions, the Australian and New
31:41Zealand, reached their objectives, but the other two stopped well short, unsure of their
31:48positions, confused by the night and the featureless desert. As dawn approached, the troops decided
31:54to dig in to await the arrival of their covering tanks.
32:05Not for the first time, however, the British armour failed to get through to support the
32:11infantry. On this occasion, however, the tank divisions could plead mitigating circumstances.
32:19They feared that if they were caught in daylight, they would actually have no room to manoeuvre.
32:23They couldn't move off those corridors because of the minefields. And if they did manage
32:26to do it, what would they find at the end of the corridors? German tanks waiting for
32:30them, or, of course, the anti-tank guns.
32:33And so the cavalry regiments, advancing down these tracks, which at the same time were
32:40still had mines on them, which had still not been cleared properly, the minute they ran
32:45into mines and lost tracks, the minute they started picking up fire from German 88mm anti-tank
32:52guns, the cavalry stopped. And it was impossible to get them moving again.
33:00Although Montgomery was very angry, he changed the plan, knowing from his First World War
33:07experience the rapidly diminishing value of repeated attacks on the same objective.
33:13The four infantry divisions who had taken the brunt of the fighting, and the casualties
33:18so far, were rested. The new plan called for the 1st Armoured Division to attack by itself
33:26on a much narrower front towards a low hill named Kidney Ridge. By using its own infantry
33:33brigades together with its tanks, it was hoped some of the confusion of the earlier fighting
33:38might be avoided.
33:42Two nights later, the Australians would be ordered to move up from their rest area and
33:47attack northwards out of their salient towards the sea to take control of the coastal region.
33:55Montgomery was again following one of his basic battle plans. Vary his attacks, keeping
34:01his opponent unbalanced, but calling off each attack before opposition stiffened and they
34:07became too costly.
34:12Meanwhile, Rommel returned to the desert to take command.
34:24...and that's when the first intrusions were made. And as it became clear, Rommel tried
34:31to draw forces from his south wing to the coast, and I was part of this group, the 21st
34:40Armoured Division, of which the Panzer Regiment 5 was part.
34:45Rommel immediately moved his 21st Panzer Division up from the south and launched it, together
34:55with 15th Panzer and two Italian infantry divisions, at the British. A ferocious battle
35:01developed around Kidney Ridge, during which dug-in British tanks were able to maul the
35:07German armour for the very first time in battle.
35:16Kidney Ridge, during the Battle of El Alamein, was important because it was the other end
35:24of Rommel's minefields, and if you could get through, occupy the ridge, put your guns and
35:32tanks on it, then you forced the Germans to attack you, and you were now in a position
35:39of strength.
35:42It was the infantry of the Rifle Brigade that did most of the damage, with their six-pounder
35:47guns.
35:53The battlefield is a mass of flaming wrecks. They've probably destroyed at least 70 German
35:58tanks and self-propelled guns, and many more vehicles, and it was an absolutely outstanding
36:03operation, in very trying circumstances, during the midday sun, with the dead and the wounded
36:08screaming for help, a lack of ammunition, a lack of water, and they are eventually relieved.
36:15On schedule, the Australians put in their attack two nights later, four miles north
36:20of Kidney Ridge, stretching the German defences once more, and forcing Rommel to commit his
36:26last trusted formation, the 90th Light Division, to contain them.
36:37The position Rommel found himself in made the once irrepressible Field Marshal deeply
36:42pessimistic.
36:46Rommel's despondency was justified, for Montgomery was now planning his last masterstroke to
36:52win the battle.
36:57In his battle diary, Montgomery noted at the time,
37:01easily my best fighting general is Freyberg of the New Zealand Division, and the next
37:06is Moorshead of the Australian Division.
37:11Both Freyberg and Moorshead were not part of the British Army, and thus you could say
37:20not part of the system which Montgomery would have described as intriguing and backbiting,
37:28and had made life so hard for him and the British Army as a whole up to this point in
37:34time. Montgomery could always rely on Freyberg and Moorshead to give him free opinions on
37:44almost any topic.
37:47Montgomery planned to win the battle by using his two most trusted generals in tandem.
37:53Moorshead would push again in the north to weaken the Germans, and then the New Zealanders,
37:59pulling out of the line and repositioned, would strike through them to break out along
38:04the coastal road. Fresh brigades would be fed in to support the New Zealand force to
38:09keep up the pace, and the Germans would be pushed aside, away from the road and into
38:15the desert. Surrender would rapidly become their only option.
38:23Ironically, it was now that Churchill, back in London, nearly made a catastrophic intervention.
38:30Ever since Montgomery had refused to open the battle prematurely, Churchill had been
38:35having second thoughts about him. Now, news that first the Armoured Divisions and then
38:41the New Zealand Division had apparently been withdrawn from the front line sent him into
38:45a purple rage.
38:47''Have we not got a single general who can even win one battle?'' he roared at General
38:53Allenbrook, the army's chief. Extremely terse cablegrams were drafted, and a minion was
39:00sent to spy out the ground at Montgomery's headquarters. However, Allenbrook defended
39:05Montgomery, and better news soon arrived to disperse the storm.
39:11For Montgomery had listened to his staff, and had made a critical change to Operation
39:16Supercharge, the blow that was designed to end the battle.
39:21Because the Australians threatened to cut off the 164th Division and break through to
39:25the coast, Rommel very quickly moved up the 90th Division, and then elements of the 15th
39:32and 21st Panzer Division. So that at the end of October, the Australians were engaging
39:38the very best units that Rommel had at his disposal. And it was at this point that Montgomery
39:44realised that because the Australians had attracted upon themselves so much of the Afrika
39:50Korps, so much of Rommel's reserves, that he could revert to a modified plan, which
39:57would essentially be a breakout further south, where the German reserve was no longer in
40:04position.
40:06On 2nd November, the Australians led off with their northern attack.
40:19Then the main blow followed from the New Zealanders, augmented by British infantry and armoured brigades.
40:36The fighting went on for three days and nights, and at first the fighting followed a depressingly
40:43familiar pattern. The infantry got forward, but most of the supporting tanks did not,
40:49with the notable exception of the 9th Armoured Brigade, which stuck to the infantry despite
40:55repeated German attacks, and lost 70 of its 94 tanks.
41:06More British tanks got up the next day, and after very heavy fighting, the Afrika Korps
41:19was reduced to just 35 operational tanks.
41:35On 3rd November, Rommel sent a signal to Hitler announcing his intention to save the
41:41remainder of his army by retreating.
42:05In the event, the order had little effect. Most of the Afrika Korps was now fighting
42:16only to find a way to escape.
42:22The final breakthrough came on 4th November in the south-west of the Great Salient created
42:27by Operation Supercharge, when the German and Italian forces made a shambolic retreat
42:33to the west. They left behind them all the evidence of a decisive British victory.
43:03...burned out or not burned out, or other vehicles that were lying around in the terrain
43:09and were no longer able to move. And I think these remains have been lying in the desert
43:15for so long that the Egyptians, years after the end of the war, at least the population
43:22who lived there, earned their bread by slaughtering and destroying all these vehicles.
43:34Of the 100,000 men of the Afrika Korps, half had been killed, wounded or captured. Rommel
43:41was incapable of mounting any coherent defence until he had retreated westwards for 1,500
43:48miles, out of Egypt and almost out of Libya.
43:57And with the torch landings behind them on 8th November in French North Africa, the clearing
44:02of all German forces out of Africa was now just a matter of time.
44:15The Battle of El Alamein was a turning point in the war, a watershed beyond all doubt.
44:21A watershed in terms of civilian morale. The Battle of El Alamein saw a new great focus
44:27for British attention. It was the Eighth Army, it was General Montgomery who had achieved
44:33this glorious victory. It hadn't completely defeated Rommel, but had really slapped him
44:38round the face and put him back on his heels. The desert rats, as they said in the newspapers,
44:43were now nibbling at Rommel's heels.
44:46The British Empire and Commonwealth had fought and won a significant victory without American
44:55support.
44:59There was this sense that finally a corner had been turned, and from now on it was going
45:05to be victory after victory. And yes, there were going to be disappointments, but the
45:10was a sense that it was now a downhill run all the way.
45:16Vital though the victory at El Alamein was, Montgomery still faced considerable criticism
45:22for his strategy, which some called over-cautious and unimaginative.
45:29The criticisms really stem from the fact that some generals and some commentators believed
45:34that if Montgomery had changed his plans, that actually he could have engaged and destroyed
45:39the Afrika Korps in situ at El Alamein.
45:43After Rommel's defeat, Montgomery was way too cautious in his pursuit of a broken enemy
45:51that if he had pressed harder, he could have finished off the enemy.
45:57The criticisms that were level at Montgomery were fair in one sense, that if he had changed
46:01his tactics, there is a chance, albeit quite a small one, that he would have been successful.
46:06But the point of fact is that this was going to be a slow, attritional war, and what Montgomery
46:11didn't want to do is lose huge casualties doing something that he knew he couldn't do.
46:17He didn't want to lose a single soldier.
46:19This was going to be a slow, attritional war, and what Montgomery didn't want to do
46:23is lose huge casualties doing something that he knew he couldn't do with fewer casualties,
46:28perhaps a month or two later down the line.
46:32Britain's only previous success against Hitler had been the Battle of Britain in 1940,
46:37and that, it was famously said, was the triumph of the few.
46:43By contrast, El Alamein was the triumph of the many.
46:48It was a victory for the thousands of factory workers in Britain and America who made the weapons,
46:55the sailors who convoyed them to North Africa,
47:00the soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth,
47:02and their allies among the Free Greeks, French and Poles who used them.
47:08The Battle of Montgomery
47:14Late in his life, Montgomery revisited the battlefield which made his reputation
47:19and gave him his title.
47:24Time had mellowed the great warrior, and the years had given him an opportunity
47:29to reflect on his role in the momentous events of 1942.
47:34When offered the opportunity to view the Italian and German cemeteries, he shook his head.
47:40I think, he said, as he walked down the long, orderly rows of white British crosses,
47:46I've been responsible for enough deaths without seeing those too.
48:03The Battle of Montgomery
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