Second Battle of El Alamein

Second Battle of El Alamein
Part of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War

24 October 1942: British soldiers in a posed attack
Date23 October – 11 November 1942
Location
El Alamein, Egypt
30°50′30″N 28°56′33″E / 30.84167°N 28.94250°E / 30.84167; 28.94250
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
195,000[3]
1,029 tanks[a]
435 armoured cars[3]
730[b] – 750 aircraft[c]
892[7] – 908 artillery guns[3]
1,451 anti-tank guns[3][d]		 116,000[9][e]
547 tanks[f]
192 armoured cars[3]
770[5] – 900 aircraft[g]
552 artillery pieces[7]
496[h] – 1,063 anti-tank guns[11]
Casualties and losses
13,560 killed, wounded, captured, and missing[12][i]
332–500 tanks destroyed
111 guns destroyed
97 aircraft destroyed[14]		 2,000–9,000 dead or missing, 4,800–15,000 wounded, 35,000–49,000 captured[12]
c. 500 tanks destroyed
254 artillery guns destroyed
84 aircraft destroyed

The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa had prevented the Axis from advancing further into Egypt.

In October 1942 Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, commander of Eighth Army, opened his offensive against the Axis forces. In a 13-day battle the Axis Panzerarmee Afrika was crushed and forced to retreat from Egypt and Libya to the borders of Tunisia. The Allied victory at El Alamein was the beginning of the end of the Western Desert Campaign.

The battle ended the Axis threat to the Middle East and Iran and revived the morale of the western Allies, being their first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. The end of the battle coincided with the Allied invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch on 8 November, which opened a second front in North Africa.

  1. ^ Maurer 1983, p. 120.
  2. ^ Latimer 2003, pp. 249–250.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Playfair 2004, p. 30.
  4. ^ Playfair 2004, p. 9.
  5. ^ a b Barr 2005, p. 304.
  6. ^ a b Playfair 2004, p. 3.
  7. ^ a b Barr 2005, p. 26.
  8. ^ a b Playfair 2004, p. 10.
  9. ^ Buffetaut 1995, p. 95.
  10. ^ Playfair 2004, pp. 9–11.
  11. ^ Barr 2005, p. 276.
  12. ^ a b Clodfelter 2017, p. 455.
  13. ^ Playfair 2004, pp. 404, 78.
  14. ^ Terraine 1985, p. 385.


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