First Battle of El Alamein

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First Battle of El Alamein Part of World War II, North African Campaign British Commonwealth infantry manning a sandbagged defensive position near El Alamein, 17 July 1942. Date July 1 – July 27, 1942 Location El Alamein, Egypt Result Tactical stalemate; Strategic Allied victory Belligerents Australia New Zealand South Africa United Kingdom British India United States [1] Germany Italy Commanders Claude Auchinleck Dorman Smith Erwin Rommel Strength 150,000 troops in 3 army corps, 7 infantry and 3 armoured divisions 1,114 tanks, over 1,000 artillery and over 1,500 planes 96,000 troops (including 56,000 Italians) 8 infantry and 4 armoured divisions (2 Panzer 2 Italian) 585 tanks (less than half of which were Panzers), less than 500 planes. Casualties and losses 13,250[2] 15,000-20,000 Killed or Wounded 7,000 Captured

v • d • e Western Desert Campaign Compass – Sonnenblume – Tobruk – Brevity – Battleaxe – Flipper – Crusader – Gazala – Bir Hakeim – Bir-el Harmat – 1st Alamein – Alam Halfa – Agreement – 2nd Alamein

Area of Western Desert Campaign 1941/2 (Click to enlarge)

The First Battle of El Alamein 1–27 July 1942 was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of World War II, fought between Axis forces commanded by Erwin Rommel, and Allied forces commanded by Claude Auchinleck. The battle halted the furthest (and final) advance made by the Axis forces into Egypt, El Alamein being only just over 50 miles from Alexandria.

Contents 1 Prelude 1.1 Retreat from Gazala 1.2 Battle of Mersa Matruh 1.3 Defenses at El Alamein 2 Battle 2.1 Panzer Army Africa attacks 2.2 Eighth Army counter-attacks 2.3 Rommel digs in 2.4 Eighth Army makes further unsuccessful attacks 3 Aftermath 4 See also 5 References 6 Footnotes 7 External links

[edit] Prelude

[edit] Retreat from Gazala

Following the defeat at the Battle of Gazala in June 1942, the Eighth Army had retreated from the Gazala line to Mersa Matruh, roughly 100 miles inside the Egyptian border. On 25 June General Claude Auchinleck, C-in-C Middle East Command relieved Neil Ritchie and assumed direct command of Eighth Army himself. He decided not to seek a confrontation at the Mersa Matruh position: it had an open left flank to the south of the sort well exploited by Rommel at Gazala. He decided instead to withdraw a further 100 miles or more east to near El Alamein on the Mediterranean coast. Only 40 miles (60 km) to the south of El Alamein the steep slopes of the Qattara Depression ruled out the possibility of armour moving round the southern flank of his defenses and limited the width of the front he had to defend.

[edit] Battle of Mersa Matruh

While preparing the Alamein positions Auchinleck fought strong delaying actions first at Mersa Matruh on 26 June and then Fuka on 28 June. The late change of orders resulted in some confusion in the forward formations (X Corps and XIII Corps) between the desire to inflict damage on the enemy and the intention not to get trapped in the Matruh position but retreat in good order. As a result there was poor coordination between the two forward Corps and units within them. After strong initial German attacks, at 9.30 am on 28 June the 10th and 11th Battalions of Colonel Scirocco's 7th Bersaglieri Regiment stormed the fortress of Mersa Matruh and overran the final defences and 6,000 prisoners were taken.^[3] Inland the New Zealand 2nd Division found itself surrounded by 21st Panzer Division at Minqar Qaim but succeeded in breaking out on the night of 27 June to join the rest of XIII Corps at the Alamein position without serious losses.^[4] However, the withdrawal of XIII Corps had left the southern flank of X Corps on the coast at Matruh exposed and their line of retreat compromised. They too had had to break out and in the process sustained heavy casualties including the destruction on Indian 29th Infantry Brigade at Fuka.

[edit] Defenses at El Alamein

Auchinleck created a strong defensive box at each end of the El Alamein line (held by the fresh South African 1st Division and New Zealand 2nd Division which had not taken part in the Battle of Gazala) and connected them with a series of dug defensive positions and gun emplacements. In the centre of the line and just behind it lay the Ruweisat Ridge, a tongue of high ground ending in a sudden bluff which commanded the ground on either side.^[5]

When Rommel's forces reached the Alamein position on 30 June, in addition to the two divisions in the boxes, Indian 18th Infantry Brigade had been detached from 8th Indian Infantry Division in Iraq and hastily sent with supporting artillery to occupy the Deir el Shein ridges four miles north west of the western end of Ruweisat Ridge. However, they had only arrived on 28 June and despite 48 hours of continuous work, late arrival of heavy digging equipment and mines meant that the position was still vulnerable to armoured attack.^[6] At this time, the units which had been conducting the fighting retreat were still disorganised and needed at least a further 24 hours before being ready to return to battle.

[edit] Battle

[edit] Panzer Army Africa attacks

On 30 June 90th Light Infantry Division attacked first along the coast but was repulsed by the South African 1st Division in the Alamein box.^[7] supported by heavy artillery fire.^[8]

Just after 9 a.m. on July 1 21st Panzer Division attacked Deir el Shein. The Indian brigade held out the whole day in desperate fighting but by the evening had been overrun. However, the time they bought allowed Auchinleck to organise a mixed infantry and artillery battle group from elements of Indian 10th Infantry Division, which had been ordered to the Nile delta area to refit, and get them into position at the western end of Ruweisat Ridge to meet the attack that began at 10 a.m. on 2 July. Repeated attempts by the Axis armour were driven back and by dusk they withdrew. Ruweisat was further reinforced on the night of 2 July.^[9]

Further south Rommel had attacked with Italian XX Motorised Corps but it had been held by 1st Armoured Division and the Littorio Armoured Division had two thirds of its tanks put out of action.^[10]

Rommel shifted units north to reinforce the Light Division for a concentrated attack along the coast road. A night attack on 1 July and further attacks on 2 July were made but little achieved in the face of extensive minefields, by determined defence and blanket artillery fire.^[10]

[edit] Eighth Army counter-attacks

To relieve the pressure on the right and center of his line Auchinleck launched a counterattack from the Qattara box (also known as the Kaponga box by the New Zealanders) on 3 July. In the first assault on 3 July, elements of 4th New Zealand Brigade, supported by four batteries of New Zealand artillery, advanced from three directions towards the Ariete Armoured Division positions deployed inside a large depression. The Italian commander ordered his battalions to fight their way out independently but the Ariete lost 531 men (about 350 were prisoners) 36 pieces of artillery, six or eight tanks and 55 trucks. Determined to cut off the rest of the "Ariete" at El Mreir the New Zealanders pushed on again on 5 July but came under heavy fire from the "Brescia" Division at El Mreir and eventually called off their attack.^[11]

The attacks by the New Zealand Division, the remaining Brigade of Indian 5th Infantry Division (Indian 9th Infantry Brigade) and 7th Motorised Brigade drove north into Rommel's flank and in three days heavy fighting almost reached Deir el Shein. During one of the night attacks, a Maori battalion from the 2nd New Zealand Division penetrated the sector held by the Italian "Pavia" Division. They were later counterattacked by the Italian division and lost part of the newly won ground.^[12] The New Zealand Official History talks about "enemy forces seeping south threatened to outflank the Division" but nothing more.

[edit] Rommel digs in

At this point Rommel decided his exhausted forces could make no further headway without resting and regrouping. He therefore dug in and the battlefield became static so that neither side would find it easy to make progress.^[13]

Rommel was by this time suffering from the extended length of his supply lines. The Allied Desert Air Force was concentrating fiercely on his fragile and elongated supply routes while British mobile columns moving west and striking from the south were causing havoc in the Axis rear echelons.^[14] Rommel could afford these losses even less since shipments from Italy had been substantially reduced (during June he received 5,000 tons of supplies compared with 34,000 in May and 400 vehicles compared with 2,000 in May)^[15] Meanwhile, the Eighth Army was reorganising and rebuilding, benefitting from its short lines of communication. New 6-pounder anti-tank guns were arriving in quantity to replace the ineffectual 2-pounders and Sherman Tanks with a powerful 75mm gun were on the way.^[16] By 4 July, the Australian 9th Division was back in the line behind the Alamein box and on 9 July Indian 5th Infantry Brigade also returned taking over the Ruweisat position. At the same time the depleted Indian 5th Infantry Division was reinforced with the fresh Indian 161st Infantry Brigade.^[17]

[edit] Eighth Army makes further unsuccessful attacks

Auchinleck attacked again on July 10 at Tel el Eisa in the north with the fresh 9th Australian Division. 89 Germans of the 621st Radio Intercept Company and 835 Italian troops that were largely part of an infantry battalion and artillery group of the "Sabratha" Division were taken prisoner by the Australian 2/48th Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel H. H. Hammer. A battalion of the Italian Bersaglieri was committed to plug the gap and initially recovered some of the lost ground at Tel el Eisa and even took 13 prisoners. According to the 2/48th Battalion diary: "[a]t approx 2000 hrs enemy tks-number unknown-and inf attacked D Coy front. They overrun posn and enemy inf forced D Coy to withdraw and occupied their psn."^[18] While the Bersaglieri suffered heavy losses, it bought time to allow the Italian XXI Corps to rush in a battalion of the "Trieste" Division and L3 and M13/40 tanks of the 3rd "Novara" Armoured Group and Major Gabriele Verri's 11th Armoured Battalion to affected sector and seal off the Australian breakthrough.^[19]

On July 14 and July 22 Auchinleck attacked the Ruweisat Ridge in the centre again (the Second and Third Battles of Ruweisat). The Axis position was in the main part held by Colonel Gherardo Vaiarini's 65th Regiment and Colonel Umberto Zanetti's 66th Regiment both from the "Trieste" Motorised Infantry Division and the 9th Bersaglieri Regiment. Neither battle was successful. In the second battle the largely Italian force held off an attack by 23rd Armoured Brigade giving Rommel time to concentrate and counterattack with the Afrika Korps. The inexperienced British tankers came under furious anti-tank fire and turning to avoid it, found themselves in a minefield. 5th Panzer Regiment launched what one observer described "a real balaclava charge" and destroyed more than forty British tanks. The rest of the 21st Panzer then destroyed what was left of the brigade.^[20] The resulting failure of armour to reach the infantry in time led to the loss of 700 men. More than 2,300 New Zealanders were killed, wounded, or captured in the two battles.^[21][22]

It was during these battles that Vaiarini and Zanetti were mortally wounded and, for their gallant actions decorated posthumously.^[23] A notable feature of the first battle was the result of the engagement between units of the 21st Panzer Division and Indian 5th Infantry Brigade which had recently had its 2-pounder anti-tank guns replaced with the new 6-pounder guns. These proved highly effective and knocked out 24 of the attacking tanks before they withdrew.^[24]

In the meantime Colonel Angelozzi's 1st Battalion 85th Infantry Regiment of the "Sabratha" Division, after regrouping, had launched a fierce counterattack on the forces on Tel el Eisa on 14 July supported by Italian tanks and succeeded in piercing the defences, between the feature and the main Tel el Eisa Ridge.^[25] The Australian troops were forced to withdraw from their forward positions, but their main defences remained intact.^[26]

Italian counter-attacks continued on 17 July when the 3rd Battalion, 62nd Regiment of the "Trento" Motorised Division attacked with a column of tanks and succeeded in inflicting crippling losses and capturing 200 troops from the 2/32nd Battalion that had stormed the feature Trig 22 held by 100 men of the Italian 32nd Combat Sappers Battalion. (Although the Australian Official History of 2/32 battalion describes the counterattack force as "German",^[27] the Australian historian Mark Johnston reports that German records indicate that the Italians were responsible for overruning the Australian battalion.^[28] Barton Maughan, Australia's official historian has written that "two forward platoons of the 2/32nd's left company were overrun, 22 men were taken prisoner"^[29] but fails to shed more light on this attack.)

Auchinleck was determined to retain the initiative and another two attacks were launched on July 27. One in the north at Tel el Eisa was a moderate failure. The other at Miteiriya, however, sustained heavy losses as the minefields were not cleared and the infantry were left without armour support when faced with a Italo-German armoured counter-attack. The Australian 2/28th Battalion lost 65 men dead and 490 captured, in an attack on the 62nd Regiment of the "Trento" Motorised Division entrenched along Sanyet el Miteiriya that was supported by the Armoured Reconnaissance Group of the "Trieste" Division.^[30][31] The Commonwealth forces lost about 600 in the fighting.

The Eighth Army was exhausted, and by July 31 Auchinleck ordered an end to offensive operations and the strengthening of the defences to meet a major counter-offensive.

Rommel was later to say that in the fighting to restore the broken lines "the Italians were willing, unselfish and good comrades in the frontline. There can be no disputing that the achievement of all the Italian units, especially the motorised elements, far outstripped any action of the Italian Army for 100 years. Many Italian generals and officers earned our respect as men as well as soldiers."^[32]

[edit] Aftermath

The battle was a stalemate, but the Axis advance on Alexandria (and then Cairo) was halted. Eighth Army had sustained over 13,000 casualties in July (including 4,000 in the New Zealand Division and 3,000 in Indian 5th Infantry Division) but had taken 7,000 prisoners and inflicted heavy damage on the Axis forces in terms of men and armour.^[2]

In early August Winston Churchill and General Alan Brooke, the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff visited Cairo on their way to meet Joseph Stalin in Moscow. They decided to replace Auchinleck, appointing XIII Corps commander Lieutenant-General William Gott to the Eighth Army command and General Sir Harold Alexander as C-in-C Middle East Command. Persia and Iraq were to be split from Middle East Command as a separate Persia and Iraq Command and Auchinleck offered the post of C-in-C (which he refused).^[33] But Gott was killed on the way to take up his command when his air transport was caught by a Messerschmitt and Gott was shot through the heart.^[34] Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was appointed in his place.^[2]

A second attempt by Rommel to bypass or break the Commonwealth position was repulsed in the Battle of Alam Halfa in August, and in October the Eighth Army decisively defeated the Axis forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein.

[edit] See also

• North African Campaign timeline
• List of World War II Battles

[edit] References

• Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord; Danchev, Alex and Todman, Daniel (editors) [1957] (2002). War Diaries 1939-1945, Re-edited edition, London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-526-5. 
• Caccia-Dominioni, Paolo (1966). Alamein 1933-1962: An Italian Story. Allen & Unwin. 
• Clifford, Alexander (1943). Three Against Rommel: The Campaigns of Wavell, Auchinleck and Alexander. London: George G. Harrap & Co.. 
• Johnston, Mark (2000). Fighting the Enemy. Cambridge University Press, 232 pages. ISBN 0521782228. 
• Lanza, Colonel Conrad H.. "Perimeters in Paragraphs: The Axis Invades Egypt". The Field Artillery Journal (September 1942). 
• Mackenzie, Compton (1951). Eastern Epic. London: Chatto & Windus. 
• Mitcham, Samuel W. [1982] (2007). Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811734134. 
• Maughan, Barton (1966). Official History of Australia in the Second World War Volume III - Tobruk and El Alamein. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. 
• Rommel, Erwin; Pimlott, John (1994). Rommel : in his own words. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1853671852. 
• Scoullar, Lt.-Col. J.L.; Kippenberger, Maj.-Gen. Howard (editor) (1955). The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945; The Battle for Egypt: The Summer of 1942. Historical Publications Branch, Wellington. Retrieved on 2007-11-02.
• Watson, Bruce Allen [1999] (2007). Exit Rommel. Mechanicsburg PA: StackpoleBooks. ISBN 978-0-8117-3381-6. 

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• EL ALAMEIN
• 1st Alamein a free/educational lunch-hour boardgame of the battle, to print off, assemble, and play
• Alam Halfa and Alamein New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
• Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Second World War (Deception and mine clearance at EL Alamein)