Investment in logistics gave the Eighth Army tactical options. Speaking of the victory Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously declared "before Alamein we never had a victory. HMS 'Hood' Sunk by 'Bismarck' The 1990 Batticaloa massacre, also known as the Sathurukondan massacre, was a massacre of at least 184 Tamil refugees from three villages in the Batticaloa District by the Sri Lankan Army on September 9, 1990. Much of the literature on Alamein is in this area. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The Battle of El Alamein, 23 October 1942. However, it is misleading to suggest that soldiers alone won the battle as Montgomery suggests. Despite this, the new Integrated Operating Concept protect phase is more focused on physical deterrence than the moral component.19 The Eighth Army example suggests that mindset is a key part of fighting power and that the British Army should look again at how to maximise it. Battle for Scheidt Estuary VJ Day. In the air, the British also enjoyed a greater superiority than ever before, with more than 1,500 first-line aircraft against some 350 German and Italian planes. Who won the Battle of El Alamein ww2? - TeachersCollegesj That night Rommel decided to fall back to Fka in a two-step withdrawal. This plan ultimately failed, which would later lead to another battle that would be fought between Rommels men and Australian forces. This project commemorating the service by Victorians in the Mediterranean theatre of WW2 was supported by the Victorian Government and the Victorian Veterans Council. First Moscow Conference But things were not going well on the German side. The British resumed the attack the following day, but their attempt to push forward was checked, and their armour paid a heavy price for the abortive effort. Evacuation The Sri Lankan forces issued shotguns to the Muslims and Singhalese villagers, which some Muslims used to attack Tamil civilians and LTTE. Montgomery denied the Axis Egypt. Often appearing abrasive, egocentric and arrogant, he was a meticulous commander and also very popular with his men. Casualties were high and the LTTE had deployed a large force of 5,000 cadres to lay siege to the army base and stop the relief force. There was an Australian officer up visiting the troops and he asked where this fellow had come from and he said, Oh we have just come around from such and such a box, and he looked at him and said, Whats a box? he said, a box is something that a bowler hat comes out of. The defensive war was clearly over. The Battle of El Alamein (second battle), was one of the most decisive victories in WWII. Was the Second Battle of El Alamein just won by numbers? Text is available under the Creative . One of Montgomerys first actions was to order that there be no more retreat. Operation Battleaxe Battle of the Bulge, Battles of Mandalay and Meiktila Arakan Offensive, Casablanca Conference As with most of the battles in the region, Australians played a vital role in the eventual Allied victory. Washington Conference, Formation of the Pacific War Council They had suffered much loss in the process of pushing through the constricted passages. Closing the Falaise Gap And I got out to deepen it a bit and Id dug about two shovelfuls of dirt out of it when I got shot.. A major change in LTTE tactics came in the First Battle of Elephant Pass in which the LTTE besieged the army garrison of a full battalion strength at the strategic Elephant Pass from 10 July to 9 August 1991 until a relief force that had been led from the sea under Operation Balavegaya broke the siege. Battle of Cape Matapan Aurum Press. Allied Landings in Italy In Britain, the church bells were rung for the first time since May 1940 to celebrate the Eighth Army's success which was, asWinston Churchilldescribed it, 'a glorious and decisive victory'. Italy Invades British Somaliland Because of this info, Monty, as his troops nicknamed him, not only knew what Rommels battle strategy would be but also what the routes of his supply lines were. The 9th Australian 9th Division would take the extreme north of the front. He had about 200 medium tanks in his two panzer divisions and 240 in two Italian armoured divisions. Rommel had ordered the dessert to be mined extensively and plenty of fortifications had been created. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites The experience of the Eighth Army also suggests we need to take protecting the moral component more seriously to maximise fighting power for future operations. Its not just Mr. Pantlin claiming so, either: in later years, Montgomery himself said as much. At the operational level, they were also aided by air and sea interdiction of supply lines degrading the Axis forces.5. The core of his defensethe two Panzer divisions of the Afrika Korpsamounted to only 9,000 men at full strength, and combat had withered that number to little more than 2,000. Training and development was prioritised to find new methods of combat. The mines disabled many of the German Panzers and turned the rest of them into sitting ducks. The Second Battle of El Alamein was fought from October 23, 1942 to November 5, 1942 during World War II (1939-1945) and was the turning point of the campaign in the Western Desert. El Alamein is located 150 miles west of the city of Cairo. The change in lines of command, combined with staff willing and capable of defining new doctrine, allowed the Eighth Army to exploit the conceptual component. 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. In the words of Raymond Widdows from Moonee Ponds, Victoria (who also was part of the Benghazi handicap), under Auchinleck there was a general feeling like the army just cant seem to get it right. Montgomerys arrival changed that, though: he gave clear orders which explained what every unit and every division had to do and thats when the morale went up., Besides being more clear about what he expected from the men under his command, Montgomery also gave up on the passivity the Eighth Army had known until then. By that time the British superiority in strengthboth in numbers and in qualitywas greater than ever before. Second Battle of El Alamein in World War II - ThoughtCo Invasion of British Borneo The staff realised that their capabilities did not meet the challenge but they did not seek easier options. In this article, we go over their experiences during this pivotal battle. When Italy declared war on 10 June 1940, the Italian Army in Libya threatened the vital Suez Canal in British-occupied Egypt. No.6 Anti-Tank Battery, 7th Anti-Tank Regiment, This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 11:39. The Allies' victory at El Alamein led to the surrender of the German forces in North Africa in 1943. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Ukraine Proves it. The moral component is defined as the human aspectincluding the will of the force to fight, its leadership, and ethical, moral and legal foundations.9, The moral component of the Eighth Army is contested in the literature with the debate focusing on force morale in July 1942 and the impact of the arrival of Montgomery as the Army Commander. Second Battle of El Alamein Fought in October-November 1942, this was the climax and turning point of the North African campaign of the Second World War. Find out more about the authors who wrote them. The turnabout doomed any chance that Rommel may have had of making an effective stand, as a resumption of the defense of El-Alamein was an exercise in futility. Merchant Navy In August 1942, Winston desperately needed a victory and replaced Auchinleck with Bernard Montgomery, who was well-respected by Allied commanders. Rhine Crossings The role of the Desert Air Force and Royal Navy isnt covered. After Rommel had fallen back from Libya to the Mareth Line in mid-January 1943 (see above Montgomery's Battle of el-Alamein and Rommel's retreat, 1942-43), two German armies, Arnim's and Rommel's, were holding the north and the south of the eastern littoral both against Anderson's 1st Army attacking from the west and against . The Battle of El Alamein begins | HISTORY Hamburg Air Offensive Persia Invaded It recognised it was outclassed by the tactical challenge and changed to meet it. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa had prevented the Axis from advancing further into Egypt. This demonstrates that leadership matters when it comes to maximising fighting power. Faced with critically low fuel reserves and subjected to almost continuous air attacks, on September 2 Rommel broke off the offensive and made a gradual withdrawal. The overriding conclusion here is not that having more stuff guaranteed an Allied victory, as much of the historiography suggests. public. The town of El Alamein was also favorable for Rommels battle strategy, which consisted of attacking the enemy from the rear. The fighting was hard all across the line, but no progress was made, meaning the British armour wasnt able to break through and wreak havoc, much like Rommel had done to them all those months before. It wasnt enough to have the will to fight, of course, Montgomery needed men and equipment to defeat the Germans and their Italian allies. After Alamein, we never had a defeat helping embed the battle in popular imagination. Burma-Thailand Railway Breakthrough at El Alamein. British Enter Rangoon Greece Campaign Rommel knew that a major attack was inevitable, and did his best to prepare for it. Despite this, the Eighth Army maintained a priority on developing the conceptual component. At 9.40 p.m. the skies around El Alamein lit up . Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from British General Bernard Montgomery was thus forced to revise his plans, and the second phase of the battle, 'Dogfight', had to be fought within - rather than beyond - the fortified positions. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Since then, the battle and the wider campaign has been studied extensively with an average of one book being published about it every three months since 1945.1. Martin van Creveld described it in 1980 as the sum total of qualities that make armies fight but this doesnt provide a framework to expand a practitioners understanding.3 The current Army Doctrine Publication Land Operations defines it as a concept that describes the operational effectiveness of armed forces and breaks it down into three distinct elements: moral, conceptual, and physical components.4 This provides a better framework from which to look at the battle. The second Battle of El Alamein was a complex battle, in which, however, it was the outcome of the tank battle that played a decisive role. Just won by Numbers? 2nd Battle of El Alamein - YouTube In his interview, he says that if it hadnt been for the fighting by the Australian battalions on the coast that forced the break-out, the battle would have been lost. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Doctrinal changes introduced by Bernard Montgomery, assisted by massive advantages in supply produced a much-needed Allied victory that brought the dominance of Erwin Rommel's formidable Afrika Korps to an end. The delay doomed the offensive. This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 11:39 (UTC). Sign up to the newsletter at the bottom of the page to be notified when the next article in this project is released. El Alamein was and is a small seaside town a little over 100 kilometers west from Alexandria. This used combat experience from across the Army in a bottom-up way. A pause of three weeks occurred before the Eighth Army could mount an offensive against the Germans new position. Medical Units Air Raid Precautions Whilst developing these conclusions, this article draws critical points from modern doctrine to either validate it or show how history can help improve it. Baedeker Raids Anzio Landings The British Army since 9/11 by Simon Akam, The Benefits of Service Life on Young People: Why school leavers should join the Armed Forces. LTTE continued to engage the army in small skirmishes and ambushes. Montgomery held them in particular disdain as symbols of the defensive mindset. The Eighth Army had a bottom up learning culture that exploited combat experience. Land Army Military history, like so much else, is prey to the dictates of fashion. Likewise, it will not look at the Axis forces. This ratio is beyond anything the expeditionary Army of post WW2 would deploy again. The Axis army of Italy and Germany suffered a decisive defeat by the British Eighth Army. Despite these mishaps, Mr. Cutler states that his company made it through the first two days, taking objective after objective amid heavy fighting. VE Day That action fulfilled Montgomerys calculation and enabled his armour, now established in good position, to inflict heavy losses on those spasmodic counterattacks. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not The battle saw the Allied Eighth Army commanded by General Montgomery breach an obstacle belt and defeat their opponents in the desert. On paper the two sides had the appearance of being evenly matched: each had 12 divisions, of which four were armoured. There are more, of course, this article has not covered intelligence, air or naval power, Napoleonic luck, or Axis failure. His convalescence in Austria was cut short by a telephone call from German leader Adolf Hitler, prompting Rommel to fly back to Africa. Montgomery was sleeping when Rommel attacked; when he was woken and told about the attack, he just said, excellent, excellent, and went back to sleep. It served as the linchpin for the defense of the port at Alexandria, which was the main hub for the Allies in the Eastern Mediterranean, vital for the forces fighting the Germans as well as those protecting Palestine and fighting in Lebanon. The most famous British general of theSecond World War, Bernard Montgomery - known popularly as Monty - took command of the Eighth Army in August 1942. He is also the Wavell Room Senior Land Editor. The British then attempted an encirclement near Mersa Matruh but were hampered by a fuel shortage and heavy rain. Second Battle of El-Alamein Declaration of War on Germany Caen Offensive Roll of Honour talk, presented by Dr Mark Johnston on 23 October 2002 in the Courtyard Gallery at the Memorial. Three captains of the Sri Lankan Army were identified as the culprits. The New Zealand Division played a key role in the second Battle of El Alamein, which began on 23 October 1942. D-Day: Juno Beach Taking another modern doctrinal angle, Army Field Manual Command only mentions lessons or doctrinal development four times and in the context of post operational scrutiny or international interoperability. Washington Convoy Conference In October 1942 the interruption of Axis supplies became still greater, and less than half of what was sent arrived in Africa. After that, the British were in a state of shock, and Montgomery felt that the war was lost. Bermuda Conference British and Commonwealth forces had successfully defended the line in the first battle of El Alamein in July 1942 under the command of Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck. British and New Zealand forces attacked the Germans, who were surprised but again saved by a sandstorm. Bruneval Raid In the first phase of the battle, (24-25 October 1942), known as 'Break-In', British XXX Corps began . Siege of Malta As with most of the battles in the region, Australians played a vital role in the eventual Allied victory. He was a master of mobile warfare, but he had to change his preferred tactics due to a lack of fuel and transport. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This gave the Eighth Army both a qualitative and quantitative edge over the Axis forces that they hadnt had during the fighting season of 1941. V-weapons Attack Britain Bernard Law Montgomery: Unbeatable and unbearable How the Second Battle of El Alamein was won | Imperial War Museums How the Second Battle of El Alamein was won In the summer of 1942, the British 8th Army was in a crisis. It was fought between two of the best commanders in World War II, Montgomery for the Allies and Rommel for the Axis between 23 October - 4 November 1942 . The evidence shows that its main strength was its ability to evolve. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. The chance of developing the breach into a breakthrough had faded, and the massive British armoured wedge was embedded in a strong ring of German antitank guns. The School determined the best mine clearing methods and then trained the breaching parties from across the Eighth Army. Hammond, Bryn (2012). The battle saw the Allied Eighth Army commanded by General Montgomery breach an obstacle belt and defeat their opponents in the desert. Having more war material alone does not guarantee success if you dont know how to use it. [Long Read] The Second Battle of El Alamein : r/SubSimulatorGPT2 - Reddit Rommel was back on the defensivea definite turning point in the war in North Africa. Formation of the Home Guard When the end eventually came to this seesaw action at El Alamein in 1942, again it was Australians who held the day; in this article well see this pivotal battle through their eyes. Allied and Commonwealth Forces Arnhem (Market-Garden) Montgomery issued early orders that divisions would fight as divisions.22 The impact of this is that command of combat support elements, such as engineering and artillery, was centralised under Army staff control. According to Glyndwr Evans, also from Box Hill, Victoria, Montgomery wanted to get the troops out of thinking defensively, to start thinking in terms of advancing and attacking and not sitting there and just defending. After all, sitting still will get you nowhere, to finish the war they had to attack.. According to another Australian who was at the battle, Ken Pantlin from Ivanhoe, Victoria, all this hard fighting wasnt done in vain. During August 1942 Rommel was reinforced with a brigade of German paratroops and a division of Italian paratroops. The ability to identify lessons quickly and disseminate them proved to be vital. Hitler ordered Rommel to 'stand and die', but the Panzerarmee had already begun to retreat by the time the order was received. 'Scharnhorst' Sunk, Battle of Monte Cassino Battle of Arras A sandstorm suddenly appeared and provided his tanks with much-needed cover, but as soon as the sandstorm was over, Allied bombers hit his forces, destroying the very place where the Panzers stood; at this point, Rommel didnt have much choice but to retreat. There was heavy fighting and the 8th Army slowly ground its way forward. The Battle of El Alamein (the second battle) was one of the most decisive victories in WWII. Britain Garrisons Iceland At the same time, the British fended off German counter-attacks ordered by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Much more important for the issue of the battle, however, was the indirect and strategic action of the RAF, together with the Royal Navys submarines, in strangling the enemys sea arteries of supply. As such, in 1942 new weapons and equipment were arriving in theatre; notably US Sherman tanks, Spitfire fighters, and 6 pounder guns. Who won the first battle of El Alamein? The situation looked gloomy, but things were far worse for Rommel. Firstly, that leadership matters in maximising fighting power. Cairo Conference Rommel had only 260 German tanks (of which 20 were under repair, and 30 were light Panzer IIs), and 280 Italian tanks (all of obsolete types). Montgomery was determined to wait until he could be reasonably sure of success, however, and he had Alexanders support. When the German forces arrived south of El Alamein, they would find themselves in the middle of a very nasty surprise; the Allies had placed an enormous amount of mines at that location, knowing where they would be attacked. Second Battle of El Alamein : 23 October - 11 November 1942 Churchill Loses General Election The armies of Italy and Germany suffered a decisive defeat by the British Eighth Army. Dieppe Raid It is often used to hide a lack of resource or general disinterest in solving problems. WAAF In 1942 the Allies had many troubles in Europe. Outcome: Allied victory, forcing Rommel to retreat into Tunisia.Note: Three hundred Sherman tanks that were hastily shipped to Egypt from the USA were a crucial influence on the outcome of this battle.
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