Second Battle of El Alamein

From October 23 to November 11, 1942, the British Eighth Army under Bernard Montgomery fought the German-Italian Panzer Army under Erwin Rommel at El Alamein, about 100 kilometers west of Alexandria in Egypt. Allied forces outnumbered the Axis, with roughly 195,000 men to about 116,000 by common estimates, and had more tanks and aircraft. After about twelve days of grinding attack through minefields, the Axis line broke and Rommel retreated. Montgomery had taken command of the Eighth Army only in August 1942.¹²³

The stakes were high. Axis control of Egypt would have given Rommel the Suez Canal and access to Middle East oil, and the British had been pushed back after earlier battles in the summer. Britain's supply lines through the Mediterranean and around Africa had been under strain. On November 8, just after the battle, Anglo-American forces landed in Morocco and Algeria in Operation Torch, and the Axis forces were trapped between two armies. Montgomery's plan, Operation Lightfoot, opened with a barrage of about 900 guns while engineers cleared lanes through minefields and Allied aircraft dominated the sky.²³⁴

The campaign ended with the Axis surrender in Tunisia in May 1943, with around 250,000 men captured, by the usual figure. Allied success in North Africa opened Italy to invasion in 1943. The campaign also ended Italian rule in Libya, which passed to British and French military administration.²³