On the evening of the 30th of June, 1942, the 1st South African division is feverishly preparing defensive positions outside the tiny railway station of El Alamein. British tanks and vehicles of 8th Army withdraw past them down Egypt’s main coastal road. An uneasy quiet takes hold after the last vehicles of the rearguard pass through the South African lines.
Shortly afterwards, the unmistakable sound of tank engines approaching from the west grows louder as the sun sets over the desert. The South African artillery opens a short barrage, forcing the unseen enemy to halt for the night. However, tomorrow will bring another battle against Britain’s nemesis in the desert, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
The British 8th Army stands in the way of Rommel and the Axis conquest of Egypt. The desert war in North Africa has, for now, turned against the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth allies. A month ago, Rommel and his combined Italian-German forces shattered the 8th Army at the Battle of Gazala. Led by the Afrika Korps, the Panzer Army Afrika followed up their success at Gazala and stunned the British by capturing the key port of Tobruk on the
21st of June, almost without a fight. Now, Rommel and his forces are racing east towards the Nile Delta and beyond that, the strategically vital Suez Canal. The defeated Commonwealth forces ahead of him continue to flee east while panic has taken hold across Egypt. Civilian refugees clog the roads leading east.
The British Mediterranean Fleet disperses to safer ports while Axis sympathizers, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, prepare for Rommel’s seemingly imminent arrival. In the cities of Alexandria and Cairo, British diplomats burn sensitive documents. This is historian Neil Ball, author of Pendulum of War, The Three Battles of El Alamein.
In Cairo itself, the British intelligence services are burning confidential papers and they’ll burn very well. They come down all over the the street and peanut sellers are taking confidential papers, you know, which are half burned and using them as cones to sell peanuts in. General Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command, has taken direct control of Eighth Army after sacking its previous leader, Neil Ritchie.
Auchinleck is charged with reinvigorating a disorganized and demoralized unit which has lost 50% of its fighting force killed, wounded, or captured. Although he makes contingencies which involve abandoning northern Egypt, Auchinleck decides to dig in near the tiny rail station at El Alamein. There are no prepared defenses in the area, but it is a strong natural position.
The Qattara Depression to the south and the sea to the north funnel any attack into a narrow front, a natural fortress where Eighth Army can finally check Rommel. This is military historian Richard Doherty, author of El Alamein 1942, turning point in the desert. Eighth Army was moving back towards what had been identified way back in 1941 when Auchinleck took over Middle East Command as the Alamein line. It wasn’t a line as such.
There were three very strong points. One of them right up in the north around the little village or railway halt of El Alamein. The next one about 15 miles south of that and the third one would have been right down towards the Qattara Depression. Concept really was that those would be held by divisions with basically static divisions but with armored divisions operating in the areas in between.
Dr. David Brock Katz is a research fellow at Stellenbosch University and author of South Africans versus Rommel, the untold story of the Desert War in World War II. We’re talking about very little manpower manning these things. It was manned and the defenses of the British defenses consisted of four boxes stretching from El Alamein down to the Qattara Depression.
The main problem with these boxes were they’re not mutually supportive. They weren’t able to support each other. They were static and the British now would rely on their mobile forces, their armor and their motorized infantry to gauge where the attack was coming through, fortune past these boxes and then counterattack the Germans once they had filtered through these boxes.
Auchinleck is also betting on Rommel outrunning his fragile supply lines, weakening his push into Egypt. In fact, the Axis units are in a desperate logistical situation despite their victories over the past month. The problem has not been lack of supply but rather lack of reinforcements with many divisions operating below 50% combat effectiveness.
The Panzer Army Afrika is about to attack with only 70 tanks left and less than 300 field and anti-tank guns. Worse yet, their rapid advance has outrun the Luftwaffe’s air cover, leaving the Afrika Korps and its logistical train vulnerable to attack by the Allied Desert Air Force. The Axis forces are able to continue forward thanks to the capture of intact British supply depots, but Rommel knows he will only have one chance to break the Alamein line before the arrival of Allied reinforcements. And I must say to you with all these things, what’s very very important with this is that the Germans at all powers were heavily outnumbered. And that’s the nature of maneuver warfare, is that it’s bluff and bluster, really. The German Field Marshal quickly draws up his battle plan on the night of the 30th of June. He intends to use his successful strategy so far in the desert’s war. His infantry divisions will launch a frontal assault on the main enemy defenses to pin them in place, while the
mobile units of the Afrika Korps make a wide sweep around the British and take them from behind. The weaker and less mobile Italian 10th and 11th Korps will follow and exploit the breakthrough. Although his forces are heavily outnumbered, roughly 52,000 to 8,000, Rommel is counting on his exhausted but determined men to pull off one more improbable victory.
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At 3:20 a.m. on the 1st of July, 1942, the first phase of the attack begins in the north. The German 90th Light Division is to bypass El Alamein, occupied by the 1st South African Division, and then turn north towards the coast to encircle it. Without any time to perform adequate reconnaissance, the almost 1,700 men of the 90th Light Division, a motorized division riding in trucks, move forward in the darkness.
However, within minutes, the leading units have become lost and drive right into the South African line. They run into not only the South African infantry, but the artillery of the South African division. And the greatest asset that the British and Commonwealth armies had during the Second World War was the artillery units.
The South Africans engage the enemy with heavy machine guns and mortars, while the German motorized troops attempt to dismount and fire back. It does not take long for Commonwealth artillery to bracket the attackers, who are soon pinned down by enemy fire. The 90th Light Division will remain stuck for the rest of the morning.
The sun eventually rises over the desert, and Allied forward outposts spot the motorized vehicles of the 90th Light. The column of vehicles is soon hit by air attacks from the Desert Air Force, which further delays the advance. Further to the south, the 15th and 21st Panzer divisions of the Afrika Korps have been delayed by a heavy sandstorm and are only able to get moving at 6:30 a.m.
This is the main body of the Afrika Korps, led by General Walther Nehring. He believes his forces are flanking the main British defensive positions at the Deir el Abyad depression. When the 55 tanks and dozens of half-tracks of the Afrika Korps spot the long winding Ruweisat Ridge, they are suddenly hit by a vicious artillery barrage.
It’s a critical feature again because it’s it’s high ground. It’s not very high. If If you’re there and you’re looking up at it, it’s not huge, but if you’re on top of it, it gives you a great vista of the the ground around. So, Ruweisat Ridge is practically and operationally and strategically, very, very important.
The approaches to the Ruweisat Ridge are defended by British and Indian units of the brand new 18th Indian Brigade. The brigade artillery forces Nehring’s men to halt in front of the Deir el Shein depression. Prostrated with the constant delays, Nehring decides to launch a frontal assault on the enemy line.
At 10:00 a.m., German and Italian artillery, including a mix of captured British and Soviet artillery, opens an extended barrage on the brigade’s positions on the ridgeline. The recently activated 18th Indian Brigade arrived at the Alamein line only 3 days ago, and its men have toiled day and night to construct adequate defenses.
Yesterday, General Auchinleck decided to abandon the position for fear that the brigade will be cut off by a German attack. Yet, this order never arrived, leaving the brigade to fend for themselves in their first taste of combat. At 11:15 a.m., the artillery falls silent, and two British officers, captured by the Axis at the Battle of Gazala, are sent to the brigade’s position with a white flag.
They are taken to brigade headquarters, where they pass on a message to the temporary commander, Lieutenant Colonel E. C. May, that he has 30 minutes to surrender. 18th Indian Brigade headquarters sends a response to the Germans over the radio, “We will fight it out.” The two captured officers are sent to 10th Division headquarters, where they reveal that the Afrika Korps is having supply problems, a major intelligence coup for General Auchinleck.
The Desert Air Force will be targeting Axis supply columns for the rest of the battle. So, this is when the medium bombers of the Desert Air Force, the famous Boston Bombers and they’re flying in formations of 18 aircraft are coming over and carpet bombing the deserts. You have no Desert Air Force fighter bombers in the in the form of Hurricanes and Kittyhawks, which are constantly trying to shoot up uh Rommel’s supply convoys.
And Air Vice Marshal uh Cunningham, who has originated concept of round-the-clock bombing, uh is now using daylight bombers, daylight fighter bombers, but then night bombers to keep up the pressure on the Panzer Army. And there’s no question that the Desert Air Force plays a major role in the slowing and then eventual uh halting of Rommel’s army.
Meanwhile, the German 90th Light Division has remained pinned down for over 6 hours, its men lying flat on the ground to hide from enemy artillery. Finally, a sandstorm blows through the area, which provides much-needed cover for the German motorized troops. They remount their vehicles and disengage from the South African defenders, driving east to search for a track that will lead them to the coast.
They have no idea that they are about to enter a killing zone covered by seven Commonwealth artillery batteries. The Afrika Korps launches its attack on the western end of the Ruweisat Ridge at noon with its last 55 Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks under cover from a heavy bombardment. The ridge is defended by the Indian and British battalions of the 18th Indian Brigade.
Despite their material inferiority, these units put up a stiff fight against the attackers. Six enemy vehicles are knocked out by mines, forcing the Panzers to be more cautious in their approach. However, the German troops soon find a gap in the minefield and advance towards the 800 men of the 2/5 Battalion of the Essex Regiment holding the northeast corner of the box.
With the battle reaching a crescendo, every man in the Essex Battalion is called to the front, including the support personnel. Everyone is a soldier in this fight. Lieutenant Colonel May later reports that cooks, mess staff, clerks, and quartermasters were firing steadily. And probably, they are managing to hold off the Afrika Korps for the time being.
To the north, the 90th Light Division has successfully advanced several miles past the El Alamein box and have reached the halfway point to the coast. Just when it seems the worst has passed for the 90th Light, its leading vehicles are once again hit by a massive artillery barrage. Hearing frantic calls on the radio for more support, Rommel decides to go forward himself to get the division moving.
He soon finds himself taking cover next to his men on the ground as the Commonwealth artillery soon destroys many of the vehicles of his command unit. The 90th Light will be stuck here for the rest of the day and must dig in once darkness falls. Back at the foot of the Ruweisat Ridge, the battle continues to rage.
The men of the 18th Indian Brigade have fought well, but ammunition is starting to run low and Eighth Army’s trucks struggle in the desert to sustain the ammo being expended. Their concentrated fire begins to slacken, which finally allows the German engineers to blow a sizeable gap in the wire. By 4:00 p.m.
, the Afrika Korps has overrun C Company of the 2/5 Battalion of the Essex Regiment threatening to cut off and destroy the 18th Indian Brigade. Lieutenant Colonel May calls for reinforcements from the British first armored division, but his tanks have been stuck in soft sand most of the day and are slow to make it to the front.
The Germans have encircled most of the Indian Brigade by 5:30 p.m. And one of the cut-off units, the fourth battalion of the 11th Sikh Regiment, decides to break towards friendly lines. The second fifth battalion of the Essex Regiment stays behind in the pocket to provide covering fire for the breakout Sikhs.
Many of the Sikh Regiment are guns down by the panzers and enemy infantry, but the line is too thin to stop all of them. Many Indians managed to penetrate the screen and reunite with allied lines. Following the breakout, the Germans turn their attention to the second fifth battalion and finally overrun the remaining troops on the east side of the Ruweisat Ridge at 7:30 p.m.
Lieutenant Colonel May is captured in the last stand of the Indian Brigade. Despite the heavy losses, the 18th Indian Brigade stand is beneficial to Eighth Army’s defense of El Alamein. But it fights incredibly hard at Deir el Shein and holds off the combined attentions of the 21st Panzer Division and the 15th Panzer Division for the entire day.
Is destroyed as a result, but they knock out at least 18 German tanks that day and it delays and slows Rommel, so his initial plan of bursting through the El Alamein defenses simply goes wrong. Although General Nehring is prepared to continue his advance, the belated arrival of the British first armored division to his south blocks his path.
The first day of the Battle of El Alamein is over with mixed results for both sides. The Indians, Gurkhas, and British of the 18th Indian Brigade have fought to near extinction with over 2,000 dead, wounded, or captured. Of the nearly 800 men in the 2/5 Battalion of the Essex Regiment specifically, only 12 make it back to friendly lines.
Despite this, Rommel feels that victory is slipping away. He decides on an all-out attack the following day using the same plan. He hopes the arrival of the Italian 10th, 20th, and 21st Corps will bolster his flagging units, who were bombed through the night by RAF Wellington medium bombers. However, the situation is also critical for General Auchinleck and Eighth Army.
His forces have suffered heavy casualties, and reinforcements are still having difficulty arriving at the front. He is also forced to abandon the defensive boxes at Naqb Abu Dweis and Bab el Qattara to narrow the front. In the chaos, a scratch force under Brigadier Robert Waller, designated as Robcol, forms from artillery, engineers, and transport crews, a desperate measure that plugs the gap.
Auchinleck plans to counterattack in the south with Eighth Corps under the command of Lieutenant General William Gott as soon as his forces arrive in the area. At 4:00 a.m. on the 2nd of July, the 90th Light Division resumes its attack towards the coast, while the Italian Trento Division and the 7th Bersaglieri Regiment assault the western end of the Alamein box.
The 90th Light barely makes it 1 mile before it is once again caught in a hurricane of artillery fire. And it once again, he was attacked and halted by the artillery fire coming out of the El Alamein box and other British artillery positions. So, once again, he was he was stymied just by the fact that the British had superior firepower, manning was low, they were numerically superior and they stood fast. That’s all they had to do.
They just had to stand they just had to stand fast and fight because Rommel really didn’t have the fighting power. So they were growing and growing in confidence as this went on that they were able to rebuff Rommel’s advances and they were they were pretty successful in this additional warfare that was developing by the 2nd of July.
By 9:00 a.m. Rommel realizes that the 90th Light is simply too weak to accomplish their mission and decides to change his plan. The Africa Corps will clear the Ruweisat Ridge before turning north to link up with 90th Light. While the German units are making their break through towards the coast, the three divisions of the Italian 20th Corps will defend the southern flank of the attack.
The main German advance in the center does not start until the afternoon due to delays in bringing up supplies and the incessant Allied air attack. The Africa Corps begins its slow climb up the ridgeline and comes under heavy fire from artillery and aircraft. The 1st South African Brigade pours in flanking fire from its box just north of the ridge while the Desert Air Force continues to cause chaos among the attackers.
On the first two days of the Battle of El Alamein, the Desert Air Force will drop 180 tons of bombs with little interference from the Luftwaffe. The Desert Air Force also mistakenly drops bombs on Allied troops including the South Africans. The British mistakenly bombed some of Pienaar’s troops in the Alamein box.
Commander of the 1st South African Division, General Dan Pienaar, already had a difficult relationship with British command and this friendly fire incident made it worse. At one point in the battle, he was overheard yelling at a British Desert Air Force representative on the phone. See here, my father fought the British in the Transvaal, and all I want to know is what side I’m supposed to be on now.
Because if I’m on Rommel’s, say so, and I’ll turn around and have him in Alexandria within 12 hours. Just work it out and let me know as soon as you’ve decided. It’s all right if you was that his positions were bombed. Unfortunately, the South Africans would come under friendly fire from the Desert Air Force again.
The Robcol scratch unit hasn’t had time to dig in on the rocky ridge line, but its gunners have a clear field of fire. Despite attacking into a hail storm of enemy fire, the Germans employ their usual tactics and find a weak spot in the Allied line. A breach is created on the right flank of the line.
Unlike the day before, the panzers punch through the hole and press forward along the ridge line. Despite the desperate situation, the Robcol defenders have been told there will be no retreat and fire back with everything at their disposal. For the next 3 hours, the Africa Corps slowly grinds down the improvised Robcol unit, bringing Rommel closer to a breakthrough.
By now, the British 1st Armoured Division has established strong defensive positions on the eastern half of the Ruweisat Ridge. They boast around 100 tanks compared to the 37 left in the attacking Africa Corps units. 38 of the British 100 are the new American-built M3 Grant medium tanks, which are superior to most German models.
The 22nd Armoured Brigade moves in to reinforce Robcol, which is on the verge of collapse. With the Africa Corps inventory unable to focus machine gun fire on the British anti-tank guns, the last remaining panzers cannot move forward. By 6:00 p.m., fighting dies down as the Africa Corps digs in for the night.
Rommel meets with his officers and ponders what to do next. Once again, his forces have suffered heavy casualties for little gain, and the Africa Corps is down to just 26 serviceable tanks. The 90th Light Division can no longer conduct offensive measures, and the unit is ordered to hold its current position.
However, Rommel receives a report from the Luftwaffe informing him that the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet has fled the harbor at Alexandria. Believing this is a sign that the Eighth Army is on the verge of total collapse, the German Field Marshal plans one last attack on the 3rd of July to finally break through the El Alamein line.
The Africa Corps will continue to push along the Ruweisat Ridge, but this time the Italians will play a crucial role. The 21st Corps will keep up the pressure on the El Alamein box, while the 10th Corps will guard the Africa Corps’s flank. Meanwhile, the motorized Ariete and Trieste divisions will make the main assault just south of the ridge.
If the Africa Corps cannot break through and encircle Eighth Army, it will be up to the Italians to finish the job before Allied reinforcements arrive. The fighting begins anew in the morning as the Africa Corps launches another attack on the Commonwealth positions on the Ruweisat Ridge. The heaviest artillery barrage of the battle so far pounds the First South African Brigade’s box, showering the men inside with metal splinters and chunks of flying rock.
To make matters worse, Boston bombers of the Third South African Air Force Wing accidentally bombs their comrades in the morning, adding to the brigade’s misery. Because lines of communication have been interrupted by the shelling, the box will be bombed by friendly aircraft for the entire day. However, the rest of the Desert Air Force has their most successful day yet.
Its aircraft fly 780 sorties in support of Eighth Army, an average of one per minute. Occasionally, a single Bf 109 will appear in the skies above the battlefield, which elicits cheers from the German soldiers, but they are far too few in number to affect the battle. As a result, the Afrika Korps gains no ground in the morning.
Although the Panzer divisions have been held up, the Italian Ariete division has found a gap in the Allied line just south of the ridge and has moved rapidly to exploit it. A breakdown in communication has resulted in the Trieste division failing to protect the Ariete’s flank as they advance. The Ariete’s motorized artillery column loses contact with the rest of the division and strays too far to the south into the open desert, where they are spotted by a Royal Artillery Observation Unit.
With such a tempting target in front of him, Brigadier Steven Weir of the Second New Zealand Division ranges his guns and orders them to open fire. Brigadier Weir’s artillery pounds away at the helpless Italians while he calls for an infantry attack. Seeing the disaster unfold, the local Italian commander calls for a fighting withdrawal, but it is far too late.
Weir orders his men to attack and the battalion launches a bayonet charge supported by mortars and machine guns. The Italians of the Ariete division are overwhelmed by the sudden charge. It’s a tremendous piece of soldiering by the New Zealanders, but uh the the Italians have also put in a tremendous effort and they they don’t quite come close to winning, but they’re certainly the giving as good as they get, very, very tough playing.
And that’s the the case if you if you like to look at first week of this, that’s the case of locking horns, of close engagement, of literally man-to-man and bayonet fighting at times. In the Vicious Kiwi Assault, the Ariete Division loses 531 men killed, wounded, or captured, 100 trucks, and all 44 of its field guns. Just to the north, at Ruweisat Ridge, the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions are locked in a pitched battle with what’s left of the Robcol unit.
Against all odds, the ad hoc defenders still manage to hold off the entire Afrika Korps. Worried that his last chance of victory might be slipping away, Rommel signals General Nehring, “I demand energetic action by the whole of the Deutsche Afrika Korps.” The depleted Robcol unit finally retreats at 4:00 p.m.
in the face of a heavy German artillery barrage. The two Panzer Divisions surge forward, only to now be confronted by the 22nd Armoured Brigade and the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers Regiment. The 9th Lancers is another mostly improvised formation, which has been equipped with whatever tanks had been repaired and returned to battle.
Its tank crews are drawn from different units, with some men having just met their comrades. The mix of tank types, numbering between and 60, Grants, Valentines, Crusaders, and Stuarts, hold the line against the last 26 tanks of the Afrika Korps as the red tracers of armor-piercing shells fill the air.
The German tank crews are seasoned veterans and use their Panzer IIIs and IVs to great effect. Multiple British tanks are hit, causing their ammunition stocks to explode. Yet, the superior numbers of the Commonwealth tanks eventually take their toll on the enemy. After more than an hour of combat, the last remaining tanks of the Africa Corps withdraw to the west.
Rommel’s last attempt has failed. So, that Rommel is facing the realistic situation that’s that’s in front of him that he’s got a very strong defense. It’s not crumbling in the way that he thought it would crumble. He’s met an Eighth Army commander who is more than his match and is determined that Rommel is not going to get through.
He’s not going to get into the Delta. The first phase of the Battle of El Alamein is over. Both Rommel and Auchinleck have pushed their men to the absolute brink. But, the Alamein line remains intact. After 3 days of some of the fiercest fighting in the North African campaign, Rommel realizes his soldiers are spent. In contrast, General Auchinleck now spots an opportunity to deal a decisive blow to the Axis forces and prepares a counterattack.
That night, he issues orders to attack and destroy the enemy in his present position. The battle is far from over. It is now the 10th of July, 1942, the 10th day of the first Battle of El Alamein. At 3:30 a.m., the 400 men of the 2/48 Australian Infantry Battalion quietly rise to their feet and move out across the barren desert floor.
The Australians are exhausted after force marching throughout the night, but the sense of nervous excitement among the men is palpable. Suddenly, night turns to day as a lone German aircraft drops a parachute flare right in the midst of the advancing companies. One Australian soldier recalled, “The men froze expecting the impact of a terrific outburst of fire.
However, the flare soon dies out and the expected enemy response never comes. The advance resumes as the Australians draw closer to the unsuspecting Italians. Desperate to reach the Suez Canal, Rommel prepares the recently reinforced Panzer Army Afrika for another push against Auchinleck’s southern flank.
He transfers two of his best units, the 21st Panzer Division and the Italian Littorio Armored Division, to the south to force a breakthrough. The day before, on the 9th of July, Rommel was informed that the 2nd New Zealand Division had mysteriously abandoned their strong defensive positions in the Carret el Abd Box.
Sensing an opportunity to punish the Allies for what appears to be an unforced mistake, the 21st Panzer and Littorio Division occupy the box and prepare for the main attack the following day. This is exactly what Auchinleck was hoping his opponent would do. Knowing that Rommel’s preferred tactic in the desert war is to outflank the Allies in the south before driving north to cut them off.
Auchinleck purposefully withdrew the New Zealand Division from its strong position to lure the Axis forces into a trap. With the Panzer Army Afrika’s strongest units in the south, the Australian 9th and South African 1st Infantry Divisions, along with support from the British 44th Royal Tank Regiment, will strike the enemy lines on the northern flank.
The main objectives are the low ridges known as Tel el Eisa and Tel el Makh Khad, which are held by the inexperienced soldiers of the newly arrived Italian 60th Sabratha Infantry Division. Backed by artillery and air power, the Australian 26th Brigade will seize the Tel el Eisa Ridge and the railway station, while the South African Division will capture Tel el Makh Khad.
With the enemy lines broken in the north, Auchinleck hopes that Rommel will launch costly counterattacks on the recently captured high ground. The 2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion continues to move towards their first objectives, two hills marked on their maps as points 23 and point 26. The 2/24th Australian Infantry Battalion, along with tank support, will capture a small ridge known as Trig 33 before swinging south and taking the prized high ground at Tel el Eisa.
As the Australians approach the enemy positions at point 26, they notice that most of the Italian forward defenses are not manned by centuries, while the fortifications themselves are only half completed. The 2/48th Battalion manages to take the hill without firing a single shot, overrunning a full battalion of the 3rd Selaire Artillery Regiment, who had been asleep in their foxholes.
With point 26 captured, the second phase of the operation begins. At 5:00 a.m., five regiments of Australian and South African field artillery open a heavy barrage, the likes of which has not been seen thus far in North Africa, on point 23 and Trig 33, with over 100 guns. To the south, Rommel is awakened by the intense bombardment and immediately realizes that he has been tricked.
He cancels his planned assault on 8th Army southern flank and orders elements of the 15th Panzer Division, along with his own kampfstafel, to race north to reinforce the line. Meanwhile, 2/48th Battalion resumes their advance under cover from friendly shells. Much like at point 26, the assault takes the enemy completely by surprise.
They overrun the Italian positions, and most of the defenders throw up their arms and surrender, while others flee to the west. By 7:15 a.m., point 23 is in Allied hands without the 2nd 48th Battalion suffering a single casualty. Meanwhile, the 2nd 24th Australian Infantry Battalion has taken its objective at Trig 33 even without promised tank support, capturing over 800 Italian prisoners.
The commander of 2nd 48th Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Heathcote Hammer, orders the third phase of the assault to begin. D company on the right and B company on the left immediately set off towards the main objective of Tel el Eisa. By now, the Axis forces in the area are firing back with their own artillery with German and Italian batteries in Tel el Eisa targeting the advancing Australians over open sights.
Yet, the Commonwealth soldiers brave the heavy fire and by 9:00 a.m., Tel el Eisa has been partially secured while the South Africans have routed the enemy units at Tel el Makh Khad. The Italian Sabratha Division has been destroyed and a large gap torn in the Axis lines. What makes the attack particularly significant is that about 600 m behind the Sabratha Division was Company 621, which was Rommel’s field intelligence listening unit.
Company 621 under Captain Alfred Seebohm uh listened in to British radio transmissions and was able to give Rommel an unparalleled feel for low-level British tactical decisions. His company is uh fights hard but is is overrun and captured and with that capture, Rommel loses that vital tactical intelligence.
It means he never is quite as sure or never quite as sure-footed as he’s been in previous battles. At Panzer Army Africa’s headquarters at Sidi el Rahman, less than 10 miles to the west, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von Mellenthin is horrified by the sight of Italian soldiers fleeing the battlefield with Crusader tanks of the 9th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment in hot pursuit.
With Panzer Army Africa on the verge of a disastrous defeat, Lieutenant Colonel von Mellenthin rallies clerks, cooks, and drivers to hold the line. At 11:30 a.m., Australian tanks advance down the coastal railway line supported by infantry when they come under fire from von Mellenthin’s improvised battle line.
A pitched battle ensues as the 9th Divisional Cavalry creeps closer to the German defenders, the Crusaders shielding the infantry following behind. The Australian attackers breach the line in several places and vicious hand-to-hand combat breaks out with the Allies only 3,000 yd away from German headquarters.
However, at this very moment, two companies of the German 164th Light Division arrive in the area. The 164th Light Division is in the process of being flown into Tobruk from Crete, but most of its heavy equipment has not arrived yet and most men have been forced to hitch rides on supply trucks in order to make it to the front line.
Nonetheless, their presence is enough to tip the battle in the favor of the defenders. 164th Light Division manages to bring up enough anti-tank guns and field artillery to beat back the Australian tanks. Elements of the Italian 101st Trieste Motorized Division have also arrived to plug the gap. Soon, the Axis artillery pins down the Australians, who temporarily withdraw to the high ground north of the Tel el Eisa train station.
Although Rommel’s northern flank remains weak, the Allies do not have sufficient forces to exploit the advantage. Armor from the British 44th Royal Tank Regiment has been mired in the boggy salt marshes north of the coastal road all morning, meaning they cannot reinforce the Australians push. Thus, a golden opportunity to destroy Rommel’s army passes as the Allies dig in on their hard-won ground.
Meanwhile, Rommel has gathered a battle group from the 15th Panzer Division and elements of the Italian Trieste Division for his counterattack. He hopes to capture the key terrain at Tel el Eisa and cut off the Australian 26th Brigade from the El Alamein box. The Luftwaffe will play a key role as Rommel has demanded maximum air support.
Beginning at 9:45 a.m., waves of 30 to 40 Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers pound Australian positions on the captured high ground while Axis artillery opens a heavy barrage. At 2:30 p.m., 10 tanks of the 15th Panzer Division set out across the salt marshes towards the 2/48 Battalion. Another 30 Stukas scream in and release their munitions, showering the Australians with shrapnel splinters.
The German tanks barrel right through their own covering shell fire and reach the first line of trenches. However, the Commonwealth artillery has forced the German infantry to hang back, leaving the tanks vulnerable. 2-pounder anti-tank guns prove deadly at this close range, their crews taking advantage of the lack of German infantry to maneuver into favorable firing positions.
The enemy attack is beaten off with six of 10 tanks destroyed. The second 48th battalion remains in control of Tel el Eisa. At 5:00 p.m., 18 German tanks launch a similar attack on the Australian positions on the eastern end of Trig 33. However, the Allied concentration of artillery is so dense that the German armor faces hellacious shellfire as they advance towards the Trig.
Those who managed to cross the hill are hit by a wall of anti-tank fire. In one of the Africa Corps’ worst defeats of the war, 14 of the 18 Panzers are destroyed in the one-sided battle. A later attack by nine tanks also fails with the loss of five Panzers. The Australian defenders suffer only six deaths and 22 wounded while inflicting well over 900 casualties on the Axis forces, including destroying 19 of 27 tanks.
However, the second 48th battalion is fighting for its life on the Tel el Eisa ridge. The Germans have launched a more powerful attack with 20 tanks, this time properly supported by advancing infantry. Just before dusk, the German armor penetrates between D and B companies holding the ridgeline, overrunning D company’s forward positions.
Faced with destruction, D company retreats, which leaves the Germans in control of the western half of Tel el Eisa. Lieutenant Colonel Hammer orders A company to counterattack as night falls over the battlefield. Under the command of Captain Robert Shellack, three infantry platoons set off at 8:30 p.m.
and creep towards the enemy forces on the ridge in an extended line. The quiet advance goes undetected until one of the platoons stumble upon an enemy machine gun nest. The startled German gunner opens fire with his MG 42, while the Panzer crews, resting just behind, jump to their feet and run for their tanks. Although outnumbered and outgunned, the Australians let out a loud war cry and charge up the ridge, the men firing from the hip.
The sudden attack has convinced the Germans that they are actually being assaulted by a much larger force, and the rest of the Panzers retreat to the south. Tel el Eisa has been recaptured, and the day ends with the Allies firmly in control of the crucial ridges to the north. The next 3 days see vicious fighting over Tel el Eisa and Tel el Makh Khad as Rommel tries unsuccessfully to throw the Australians and South Africans off the high ground.
By the end of the 30th of July, both sides are too exhausted to continue offensive operations. The Axis has suffered heavy casualties, with almost 4,000 dead, wounded, or captured since the counterattack began, most of which are Italian. In comparison to the heavy Axis losses, the Allies in the north have lost less than 400 men in the fighting during this period.
The capture of Tel el Eisa does not bring about a decisive result, but the successful attack provides a massive morale boost for Eighth Army. For the first time since Operation Crusader in late 1941, the Allies have gone on the offensive against Rommel and won. The South African official history of the war later comments that after Tel el Eisa, the Eighth Army was never again to know the anguish and humiliations of retreat.
Auchinleck plans another attack he hopes will finally destroy the Panzer Army Africa. And this time, the target is the familiar background of the Ruweisat Ridge. As the sun sets over the battlefield, the positions of the 2nd New Zealand Division are a whirlwind of activity. After an unbearably hot day, where the New Zealanders suffered three swarms of desert flies, the men of the division are keyed up in expectation of a major night assault.
The commander of the 5th New Zealand Brigade, Brigadier Howard Kippenberger, walks along the line and visits with soldiers of the 22nd Battalion. He later remembered, “The men were quiet. Those I spoke to, cheerful and resolute.” Finally, at 11:00 p.m., the order to advance is given. Kippenberger watches as his men set off towards their objective.
“The battalion stood up. There was a jingle and rustle of equipment, and then it moved silently forward, heartening the orderly and resolute-looking.” This is Operation Bacon, the Allied attempts to finally destroy the Axis forces at El Alamein. Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa remains outnumbered, but his forces have been pressing hard against the northern salient around the high ground at Tel el Eisa.
The Australians and South Africans have held their ground thus far, but the Italian and German attacks are taking their toll on the exhausted Allied troops. General Auchinleck plans a decisive breakthrough in the center of the Axis line, while the enemy is distracted in the north. The 4th and 5th New Zealand Brigades will smash through the weaker Italian Pavia and Brescia Divisions on the western end of the Ruweisat Ridge, supported by the 5th Indian Brigade.
Once the breakthrough has been achieved, the British 2nd and 22nd Armoured Brigades will move to exploit the opening and penetrate deep behind Axis lines to split the Panzer Army Africa in half. Originally set to go on the 11th of July, Operation Bacon has been postponed three times until the night of the 14th.
Beginning at 11:00 p.m., the attackers are to clear the bridge of enemy forces by 4:30 a.m., at which point the British tanks will press forward. Much like the Australian attacks, which broke through the Italian defenses in the north, the New Zealanders advance quietly without a preparatory artillery barrage.
The success of the night assault depends upon small teams called navigation parties, which are marking the correct attack direction ahead of the advancing troops. The New Zealanders advance 2 miles in the first hour without encountering any resistance. At just after midnight, the leading battalions come across minefields laid in front of the Italian positions.
Once the path has been cleared out of the sight of enemy guns, the New Zealanders move through the gap and approach the Italian machine gun nests without being seen. Multiple enemy encampments are overrun, and the number of Italian prisoners quickly swells over 2,000. However, the practice of bypassing enemy strongpoints is causing the attack to become disorganized, and the advance quickly loses momentum while communications break down.
Despite the chaotic advance, Italian resistance has completely collapsed. By 4:30 a.m., the Ruweisat Ridge is secured, and the New Zealand Brigade awaits their promised tank support. Just to that east, the Indian 5th Brigade is making slow but gradual progress against the enemy positions in that sector.
The New Zealanders have accomplished a tremendous feat so far in routing two Italian divisions and advancing 6 miles during a fighting advance at nighttime. The attackers have unknowingly penetrated deep behind enemy lines, only 3 miles from the headquarters of the 15th Panzer Division. General Walther Nehring, commander of the Africa Corps, quickly assembles as many forces as he can to salvage the grave situation.
Nonetheless, the forward Allied battalions are scattered across the ridge in a vulnerable position. Serious problems are now developing across the front, which are made worse by a fatal miscommunication during operational planning. The commander of the 4th New Zealand Brigade, Lindsay Inglis, had assumed that the British armored brigades would clear out the bypassed enemy strong points and would be in position to exploit the expected breakthrough.
On the other hand, the commander of the 1st Armoured Division, Major General Herbert Lumsden, has refused to allow his tanks to work in coordination with the infantry in accordance with British military doctrine. To further complicate matters, the two armored brigades have not yet been ordered into combat, which will soon have dire consequences for the operation.
The 22nd New Zealand Battalion of the 4th Brigade has become separated in the advance. When dawn breaks over the battlefield, one of the bypassed enemy units are eight tanks of the German 8th Panzer Regiment. As sunlight filters across the desert, its commander spots the 22nd New Zealand Battalion attempting to dig in and launches an immediate attack.
The New Zealanders are caught by surprise and a one-sided battle begins. Stuck in the open, cut off from communication, and with no hope of relief, the battalion commander promptly surrenders. 350 men are taken prisoner and marched off to the west. Brigadier General Kippenberger spots his men under fire and without a working radio, races to the rear to find General Lumsden and the British 2nd armored Brigade at just before 7:00 a.m.
Kippenberger pleads with Lumsden to move his tanks forward, but Lumsden refuses as the entire plan for Operation Bacon relies upon the entire second New Zealand division reporting they have reached their objectives at first light. The fourth Brigade successfully transmi
tted confirmation at 4:30 a.m., but the out of contact fifth Brigade still has not checked in. It is not until 7:00 a.m. that the British tanks advance towards the breakthrough almost 2 hours behind schedule. On the ridge itself, another German counterattack begins against the fourth New Zealand Brigade. Five tanks attempt to advance up the ridge, but the Allied infantry here has managed to deploy their six-pounders properly and fire back at the enemy.
The German Panzers stop and a duel breaks out before the tanks are slowly driven back by the intense fire from the six-pounders. They withdraw just out of range of the anti-tank guns and then shell the defenses from their hold down position. Although they are holding, there is still no sign of the British tanks which are still waiting behind the front line.
While attempting to move northwest, two regiments of the second armored division have become stuck in a minefield. At the same time, the 22nd armored Brigade has been pinned in place by a counterattack from the German 90th Light Division and the Italian Ariete armored division. Although the 22nd Brigade fights off the attacks, they are prevented from reinforcing the breakthrough at the Ruweisat Ridge.
The second New Zealand division is by itself. The brigades on the ridge are attempting to reform and dig in when General Nehring launches a counterattack at 3:00 p.m. The fourth New Zealand Brigade is the main target of the attack and its situation quickly becomes critical. The infantry has found that the ridge is too rocky to dig trenches, which leads to extensive casualties from Axis shelling.
At 4:00 p.m., 42 Panzers begin climbing the ridgeline behind a thick smoke screen. The anti-tank gunners cannot identify any enemy targets thanks to the enemy smoke screen, and the 6-pounder positions are knocked out within minutes. Many New Zealanders fire back at the tanks with their small arms, desperate to stop the German advance.
It’s a futile gesture, as the Panzers surround the isolated Allied positions and force them to surrender one by one. The failure to properly coordinate a combined arms assault by both tanks and infantry has cost Eighth Army dearly. By 7:00 p.m., the surviving Allied units have returned to their jumping-off points.
The Fourth New Zealand Brigade has been destroyed in the fighting, losing 1,405 men. To add insult to injury, more than 2,000 Italian prisoners have been rescued and freed by the advancing Germans. Like the Battle of Tel el Eisa, the attack on Ruweisat Ridge began promisingly, but has become another frustrating episode for Eighth Army.
But in many respects, the the plan from the outset was flawed, and it was overambitious given the troops available. It causes a huge shock to the Panzer Army. It does break through the Italian defenses, but ultimately at quite a heavy cost for Eighth Army and the New Zealand division. In the next 2 weeks, Auchinleck will mount two more attacks to destroy Panzer Army Africa.
However, neither offensive succeeds, and on the 31st of July, Auchinleck orders his exhausted forces to take a defensive posture. The First Battle of El Alamein is over with neither side accomplishing their objectives. The Axis attempts to conquer Egypt has been halted, but the Commonwealth are unable to destroy Rommel’s forces.
The Allies have suffered 13,250 casualties, while the Germans and Italians roughly 17,000. Most of them are Italian prisoners. As Rommel somberly notes in letters to German High Command, the battle has nearly ripped the heart out of the Italian Army in North Africa. Nonetheless, Rommel digs in and prepares for a later attempt to finally smash through the Commonwealth forces in the following month.
The stalemate at the Alamein line will only be temporary. Although General Auchinleck has successfully defended the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has lost faith in him. In early August, Churchill and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, decide to relieve Auchinleck of command and replace him with Sir Harold Alexander.
13 Corps Commander, William Gott, is promoted to lead Eighth Army against Brooke’s wishes, but Gott is killed before he can take command when his aircraft is shot down. With Gott dead, Brooke turns to his preferred choice, a disciplined man who stands at 5’7 and carries a reputation as a true professional soldier.
His name is Bernard Montgomery. Thanks again to Neil Ball, author of Pendulum of War, The Three Battles of El Alamein. To military historian Richard Doherty, author of El Alamein 1942, Turning Point in the Desert. And to Dr. David Brock Katz, a research fellow at Stellenbosch University and author of South Africans versus Rommel, The Untold Story of the Desert War in World War II.
