British victories in Egypt during World War II preserved Allied control of the Suez Canal and Middle East oil.
The German threat in North Africa
By 1940, the German army had captured most of Europe. Italy, a German ally, wanted some success of its own. An Italian army attacked British-held Egypt from its bases in Libya. The British repelled this attack and forced the Italians all the way back to Libya. With his ally threatened, German dictator Adolf Hitler ordered a small tank force under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to Libya. His orders were to save the port city of Tripoli from the British. Rommel went beyond those orders, taking the offensive in the spring of 1942. He forced the British to retreat. As his advance continued for a year, he got farther from his supply base in Tripoli. His tanks ran on fuel captured from the British, and his troops used captured trucks. Still Rommel kept pushing. By June 1942, he was approaching Alexandria,on the delta of the Nile River. If broke through,he could seize the Suez Canal and cut Britain off from the fields in the Middle East.
The Desert Battles
First EI Alamein while General Claude Auchinleck arranged the British defenses, panic struck Alexandria. The British embassy staff burned papers and prepared to leave. The British fleet streamed through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea to avoid capture. Auchinleck tried to stop Rommel at Matruh, but German forces swept around the southern end of the British defenses. The British made their next stand at EI Alamein, just 60 miles from Alexandria. A huge area of low land , called the Qattara Depression,lay to the south. Steep cliffs at its edge prevented Rommel from trying to encircle the British army from that direction, as he had done at Matruh.He had to attack head on. In fighting from July 4, Rommel failed to break the British line. Rommel was stop.
Alam El Halfa The British and German armies maintained their positions for weeks, digging trenches and laying mines. Prime Minister Winston Churchill replaced Auchinleck with General Bernard Montgomery. The British army got needed reinforcements, including powerful new American tanks. The British now had around 700 tanks; Rommel, who had also been reinforced, had only 443. Rommel knew that he must attack before the British got even stronger. On August 31, he assaulted the position at Alam el Halfa, at the southern end of the British line. The British held again. Down to one day's supply of fuel, Rommel pulled back.
Second El Alamein Montgomery prepared his own attack. Urged by Churchill to move quickly, he insisted on more time. "If the attack begins in September, it will fail," he wrote." If we wait until October, I guarantee . . . the destruction of Rommel's army." Churchill agreed. By late October, after both armies had been reinforced, Montgomery's forces outnumbered Rommel's:
*Montgomery had 195,000 troops, Rommel 104,000.
*Montgomery had 1,200 tanks, Rommel fewer than 500
*Montgomery had twice the artillery of Rommel and an air force of 1,200 planes.
Rommel could get no further reinforce-ments; German troops were badly needed for the fighting in the Soviet Union. On October 23, the attack began. The British infantry was unable to break through Rommel's defenses, however, Montgomery continued to attack for the rest of the month, hitting a different spot in the German line each time. The British couldn't budge the Germans, but Rommel was losing badly needed tanks, and his supplies were being used up. On November 2, a New Zealand division finally broke through the German line. Rommel knew he had to retreat, but Hitler ordered him to stay. The next night Indian troops pushed Rommel's army out of its last defensive position. Beaten,he ordered to retreat.
North Africa After El Alamein
The victory was a decisive one. It saved the Suez Canal and maintained Allied control of Middle East oil. It pushed the European Axis powers- Germany and Italy- out of Egypt for good. Indeed,it helped expel them from North African coast all the way to Tripoli again. Meanwhile, British and American troops landed in Morocco just days after the fighting ended at EI Alamein. Rommel now faced armies from two directions. It took the Allies until May 1943 to completely expel Rommel's army from North Africa. Once they did, the way was prepared for the invasion of Italy. With that invasion, the Allies began the liberation of western Europe.
The British line at EI Alamein was perilously near the heart of Egypt and the Suez Canal-an important seaway for maintaining the flow of oil to British armies.
