Among their number was Victoria Cross winner Private Alfred Stan Gurney of the 2/48th South Australian Battalion. The coming battle would become one of the most famous of the Second World War, an old-school infantry slog through deadly minefields more akin to the First World War than the Second. Something had to change. Image: The original artist's sketch of El Alamein War Cemetery. Our collection contains a wealth of material to help you research and find your connection with the wartime experiences of the brave men and women who served in Australias military forces. All rights reserved, Courtyard Gallery, Australian War Memorial, Remembering 1942: The Battle of El Alamein. 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This would then force Rommel to deploy his armoured reserve, which would break itself attacking the British and Commonwealth tanks. On 1 September 1942, Australians from the 2/15th Battalion crossed a minefield and seized an enemy post about 3 kilometres from Tel el Eisa, near El Alamein. The bombardment started on the night of 23 October, but crumbling the German defences proved more difficult than expected. However, upon his return, Rommel immediately ordered a counter-attack which stopped their advance. Both sides incurred heavy losses in the ensuing battle, but by evening the Afrika Korps was facing defeat. A battle which would prove the tide of the war had truly turned in the Allies' favour. The New Zealand Division played a key role in the second Battle of El Alamein, which began on 23 October 1942. Aurum Press. Here, over 7,200 Commonwealth burials can be found, 800 of which are unidentified. Montgomery planned a new attack Operation Supercharge further to the south, which would essentially repeat the process of the initial attack. A fortnight after resuming his withdrawal from el-Alamein, Rommel was 700 miles to the west, at the traditional backstop of Agheila. For Montgomery, the fighting resulted in 2,350 killed, 8,950 wounded, and 2,260 missing, as well as around 200 tanks permanently lost. Meet the NZHistory team, 2 New Zealand Division leads breakthrough at El Alamein. Explore the story of the CWGC, from our formation during the First World War to our work today. Meet the NZHistory team. El Alamein: The Battle that Turned the Tide of the Second World War. galleries are progressively closed from 4 pm. On July 1, 1942, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is brought to a standstill in the battle for control of North Africa. This site is produced by the Research and Publishing Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Manat Taonga. Winston Churchill ordered bells to be rung out across Britain for the first time in years saying "Before Alamein we never had a victory, after Alamein we never had a defeat". Despite Hitler ordering the German-Italian troops to stand fast, by 4 November Axis forces in North Africa were in headlong retreat. We pay our respects to elders past and present. The Desert Air Force aircraft were equipped as fighter bombers so that they could tackle forces on the ground using bombs and cannon. When Rommel, ordered back to Africa by Hitler, reached the front in the evening of October 25, half of the Germans available armour was already destroyed. That meant that there were never adequate resources for all the ambitions that the commanders had whether in attack or defence. And is Rommels reputation deserved. Having breached the prepared Axis positions, the tanks ran into Rommels panzers (German tanks). Australians fought in the battle, and I'm going to concentrate on them, and in particular on the ones who were killed in the epic struggle that began on 23 October 1942 and lasted until 5 November. Many soldiers who fell in fighting throughout the Western Desert campaign are buried here, including those who took part in the titanic clashes at El Alamein. Tanks like this one the M3 Grant were early in the desert from 1942 and were beginning to have an effect. On the night of October 30, they succeeded in reaching road and repelled numerous enemy counterattacks. In the end, the Commission settled on the only real option for the valorous dead: a site close to El Alamein itself. The Allies would be able to launch a successful invasion of Sicily in 1943, putting more pressure on Axis forces in the run-up to D-Day in June 1944. They were forced to withdraw, their brief raid costing 39 Australian lives, 100 wounded and 25 missing. Gratwick charged headlong into a German machine-gun nest, disabling it with grenades, before attacking and overcoming a mortar pit all singlehanded. less two squadrons, 2 Regt. Rommel was already on his way back to North Africa to take command. By 2:00 AM the armored advance began, however progress was slow and traffic jams developed. As a result, four Italian divisions effectively ceased to exist. Recovering and reinforcing, new leadership on the British side commenced planning an offensive to regain the initiative. At 1:00 AM on November 2, Montgomery launched Operation Supercharge with the goal of forcing the battle into the open and reaching Tel el Aqqaqir. Sanderson, who surely epitomises the best traditions of leadership in the AIF. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/second-battle-of-el-alamein-2361465. The vital Libyan port fell in June 1942, leaving the British heavily demoralised. But in the face of overwhelming odds, Rommel knew that he had to retreat. However, as events were to prove, Montgomery clearly understood the importance of morale and as time went on and he met more and more of those under his command he passed on to them a supreme confidence in the possibility of victory and by the end everyone believed that this was the great chance. A large part of the German army was effectively cut off. Despite their best endeavors the Italian armour was not able to stem the tide of the advance and suffered hugely in the process to the point of destruction. All visitors require a free timed ticket to enter the Memorial Galleries and attend the Last Post Ceremony. The British had been fighting in North Africa since 1940. Across a month of fierce fighting, British imperial forces, featuring Australian, Indian, South African, and New Zealand troops, managed to stall Rommels advance and push him back. The battle revived the morale of the Allies, being the first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. Rommel was plagued by illness and departed for hospital in Germany on 23 September, leaving General Georg von Stumme in command of a depleted Panzerarmee. Following a dramatic defeat at Gazala, Libya, in June 1942, the British and Commonwealth forces under 8th Army had been pushed back into Egypt. The 4th, 5th and 6th (NZ) Brigades suffered heavy casualties in these battles, and several thousand more New Zealanders were captured. Casualties were heavy. 10 am to 5 pm daily (except Christmas Day). A major British offensive was on the way. He listed 11 close comrades killed on or near it. The battle was a slogging match, for it soon became apparent that the original plan of the overall British commander, General Montgomery, to achieve a quick breakthrough with tanks, was impossible. With the bulk of German war materials going to the Eastern Front, Rommel was forced to rely on captured Allied supplies. Rommel was determined both to re-establish contact with them and to crush the Australians who were in his way in the area that became known as the Saucer. We now stand together, in partnership with Egypt, in order to build a prosperous and democratic future.. Public entrance via Fairbairn Avenue, Campbell ACT 2612, Book your ticket to visit: awm.gov.au/visit, Copyright Education Activity: Learn about the living conditions of soldiers at El Alamein by examining a photo taken in the forward area on the El Alamein front. With Dr Peter Stanley, the Memorial's Principal Historian, he has co-written Alamein: the Australian Story , which was launched at the Memorial on 23 October 2002, the 60th anniversary of the opening of the battle. There were setbacks of course, such as Operation Market Garden, but their scale was much lower when compared to Gazala or Tobruk. 025172. I have mentioned only a tiny, but representative proportion of the 620 who died in the October battle. The First Battle of El Alamein (1-27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War, fought in Egypt between Axis (German and Italian) forces of the Panzer Army Africawhich included the Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommeland Allied (British Imperial and Commonwealth) forces of the Eighth Army . Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. The victory also persuaded the French to start cooperating in the North African campaign. The Australians captured a key feature, called Trig 29, which gave panoramic views of the battlefield for kilometres around. Have a question about us or our work? The men responded well, quickly morphing the Desert Rats into a confident attacking force. 11:34 Remembering 1942: The Battle of El Alamein Dr Mark Johnston / 11:34 Transcript I'm Mark Johnston, and it's my privilege and pleasure to speak to you about the battle of El Alamein, which began 60 years ago today. Next the engineers went forward to clear the minefields. In subsequent days, Rommel launched no fewer than 25 counterattacks against Trig 29, but it was held, first by the 2/48th and then the 2/17th Battalion. It ended the long fight for the Western Desert, and was the only great land battle won by the British and Commonwealth forces without direct American participation. Allied air and submarine attacks on the Axis supply lines across the Mediterranean, moreover, had prevented Rommels army from receiving adequate replenishments of fuel, ammunition, and food; and Rommel himself, who had been ill before Alam al-Halfa, was convalescing in Austria. Following the legacy laid down by the Commission following the First World War, those who fell would be remembered and laid to rest in carefully maintained cemeteries or commemorated via appropriate memorials. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from Questions or feedback on our new site? Pushing west, Montgomery drove Rommel back to El Agheila in Libya. Hammond, Bryn (2012). This meant that at crucial points in the ground battle, the Allies could call upon air support to resolve the problems on the battlefield. The following evening he told a friend: "The more I think back, the more I realise that winning was only made possible by the bravery of the 9th Australian Division in holding the road against counter-attacks and slowly pushing forward despite increasing casualties. Just a stone's throw from the Menin Gate, visit our Information Centre to learn more about the CWGC. On 2 November, Rommel warned Hitler that his army faced annihilation. Over the next few months, 8th Army became a force to be reckoned with. General Montgomery visited their graves when he went to the El Alamein cemetery in 1967, on the 25th anniversary of the battle, and this visit made a deep impression on him. Commonwealth war graves commission Caring for the fallen, Commonwealth war graves foundation Our charity site. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Rommel attempted an attack between 30 August and 7 September (the battle of Alam Halfa), but the 8th Army held its ground, largely due to the excellent cooperation between the army and the air force. At Tobruk, a year earlier, he had won the Military Cross and then won a second one in the disastrous Bulimba operation of September 1942.
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