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 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Italy Germany | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Harold Alexander Bernard Montgomery Oliver Leese Brian Horrocks Herbert Lumsden |
Curio Barbasetti Erwin Rommel Georg Stumme † Wilhelm von Thoma (POW) Giuseppe De Stefanis Enea Navarini Enrico Frattini (POW) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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195,000 1,029 tanks 435 armoured cars 730 – 750 aircraft 892 – 908 artillery guns 1,451 anti-tank guns |
116,000 547 tanks 192 armoured cars 770 – 900 aircraft 552 artillery pieces 496 – 1,063 anti-tank guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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13,560 killed, wounded, captured, and missing 332–500 tanks destroyed 111 guns destroyed 97 aircraft destroyed |
2,000–9,000 dead or missing, 4,800–15,000 wounded, 35,000–49,000 captured 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.