Battle Of El Alamein Essay

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The first Battle of El Alamein occurred between July 1-27 of 1942. It was part of the Western Desert Campaign of World War 2 which was fought between the British Eighth Army. The army was led by General Claude Auchinleck and The Axis forces were led by Marshal Erwin Rommel After the British had defeated the Italian forces on numerous occasions in North Africa general Erwin Rommel was chosen commander. In January of 1942 his forces started to travel east along the North African coast to seize the Suez Canal Axis army in Libya. After losing the fight in Benghazi in January, the British had the Germans on check until the month of May. The German and Italian forces were able to destroy most of the british tank force eastward into Egypt, reaching the British defenses at El-Alamein on June 30, 1942. …show more content…

The battle of attrition soon developed. By mid-July general Rommel was still at El-Alamein, blocked, and had even been thrown on the defensive, ending the first battle. The British had stopped his drive to overrun Egypt and seize the canal. Allied forces lost this first battle. 13,250 of the 150,000 troops were killed. The rest were wounded severely. For the Axis, 10,000 troops were killed out of the 96,000 troops. The rest were also wounded. In the wake of this defensive success, Commander Auchinleck was then replaced, but his replacement was killed, paving the way for Bernard Montgomery to take command of Britain’s Eight Army in North Africa. With the defense of Rommel, Montgomery took the time to build an army to prepare for a new offensive for the Second Battle of El-Alamein. The British had built a defensive line at El-Alamein because the Qattara Depression to the south was impassable to mechanized forces. A narrow hault prevented the German tanks from operating on their preferred southern flank with open field. Now that the British had moved over to the offensive, the proposed battlefield also suited the British Eighth Army, whose main strength lay in