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Posted on 09/12/2005 9:59:02 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 The Battle of Alamein, or more correctly the Second Battle of El Alamein, marked a significant turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The battle lasted from October 23 to November 3, 1942. Following the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance, General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Commonwealth's Eighth Army from Claude Auchinleck in August 1942. Success in the battle turned the tide in the North African Campaign.  Field Marshal Erwin Rommel By July 1942 the German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel had struck deep into Egypt, threatening the British Commonwealth forces' vital supply line across the Suez Canal. Faced with overextended supply lines and lack of reinforcements and yet well aware of massive Allied reinforcements arriving, Rommel decided to strike at the Allies while their build-up was still not complete. This attack on 30 August 1942 at Alam Halfa failed, and expecting a counterattack by Montgomery´s Eighth Army, the Afrika Korps dug in. After six more weeks of building up forces the Eighth Army was ready to strike. 200,000 men and 1,000 tanks under Montgomery made their move against the 100,000 men and 500 tanks of the Afrika Korps. With Operation Lightfoot, Montgomery hoped to cut two corridors through the Axis minefields in the north. Armour would then pass through and defeat the German armour. Diversionary attacks in the south would keep the rest of the Axis forces from moving northwards. Montgomery expected a twelve-day battle in three stages — "The break-in, the dog-fight and the final break of the enemy."  The Commonwealth forces practised a number of deceptions in the months prior to the battle to wrong-foot the Axis command, not only as to the exact whereabouts of the forthcoming battle, but as to when the battle was likely to occur. This operation was codenamed Operation Bertram. A dummy pipeline was built, stage by stage, the construction of which would lead the Axis to believe the attack would occur much later than it in fact did, and much further south. To further the illusion, dummy tanks made of plywood frames placed over jeeps were constructed and deployed in the south. In a reverse feint, the tanks for battle in the north were disguised as supply lorries by placing a removable plywood superstructure over them.  El Alamein - the Northern Sector The Axis were dug-in along two lines, called by the Allies the Oxalic Line and the Pierson Line. They had laid around half a million mines, mainly anti-tank, in what was called the Devil's Garden.  Alamein Battlefield The Battle of El Alamein is usually divided into five phases, consisting of the break-in (October 23-24), the crumbling (October 24-25), the counter (October 26-28), Operation Supercharge (November 1-2) and the breakout (November 3-7). No name is given to the period from October 29 to the 30th when the battle was at a standstill. On a calm, clear evening under the bright sky of a full moon, Operation Lightfoot began with 882 field and medium sized guns releasing a barrage of fire that did not stop until five and a half hours later, when each gun had fired about 600 rounds. During that period of time, 125 tons of bombs fell on the enemy gun positions. Legend has it that the noise was so great that the ears of the gunners bled.  There was a reason for the name Operation Lightfoot. The infantry had to attack first. Many of the anti-tank mines would not be tripped by soldiers running over them since they were too light (hence the code-name). As the infantry attacked, engineers had to clear a path for the tanks coming up in the rear. Each stretch of land cleared of mines was to be 24 feet wide, which was just enough to get a tank through in single file. The engineers had to clear a five mile section through the ‘Devil’s Garden’. It was an awesome task and one that essentially failed because of the depth of the Axis minefields.  The Allied plan called for the 13th Corps to make a feint attack to the south, engaging the German 21st Panzer Division and Ariete Divisions which were both tank divisions, while the 30th Corps in the north attempted to make the narrow pathway through the German minefield for the armored divisions of the 10th Corp.  At 10 pm, the infantry of the 30th Corps began to move. The objective was an imaginary line in the desert where the strongest enemy defenses were situated. Once the infantry reached the first minefields, the mine sweepers (sappers) moved in to create a passage for the tanks. Finally, at 2 am, the first of the 500 tanks crawled forward. By 4 am the lead tanks were in the minefields, where they stirred up so much dust that there was no visibility at all, and traffic jams developed as the tanks got bogged down. Entire columns went astray when the lead tank moved off course, and they were seldom exactly where they thought they were. In fact, on this night the tank units thought that they were through the first minefield and into the second when they were in fact still in the first.
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Good afternoon Snippy, Sam and everyone. No quilting today, I went to the funeral of a WW2 Vet this morning.
I'm inclined to think he was anyway.
Thanks EGC.
Good afternoon all
LOL. They'd have to pay me extra to drive that! Lots extra!!
Good afternoon Gail.
Howdy ma'am
Just like capturing Caen 2 months late, "Holding the Germans around Caen" while the Americans broke out at Avranche and his "partial success" in Market-Garden (Without the Arnhem bridge the operation was a failure, IMHO)
Erwin Rommel has been my idol and tank god since I was 10. He was why I became an armor officer. So you might say, in the armor sense, I will have no gods before him.
It took you till 10 to realize Rommel was a tank god? ;-) I wanted to get into Armor, but being color blind kept me out. :-(
ARRRGH!!!!!! Snippy left herself signed on again!! Post 48 was from me.
LOL! Monty turned every operation into a quagmire, he wasn't real good with "fast moving operations"
:-(
First guy to really get my attention was Chingghis Quan
He reminds me of George B. McClellan, always crying that he needs more troops.
You should pay attention then you won't post under my name. Why is it always my fault? :-)
Good evening USMCBOMBGUY.
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