November 2nd, 1942 - The Second Battle of El Alamein

Conflict: World War II

Combatants: Allies vs. Axis

Location: Egypt

Outcome: Allied victory

On this day in 1942, troops and artillery of the 2nd New Zealand Division cleared the minefield near Kidney Hill opening the way for British General Bernard Montgomery's tanks to assault Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's dug-in 164th Division. Panzers counterattacked but failed to halt the British advance. After two days of fighting Rommel, in defiance of Hitler's orders, withdrew the Afrika Korps and the Axis line collapsed.

El Alamein 1942, British tanks move up to the battle to engage the German armor after the infantry had cleared gaps in the enemy minefield by Sgt. Gladstone

General von Thoma, Commander of the famed Afrika Corps, surrenders to Montgomery at 8th Army TAC HQ by No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Knight (Lt)

Points of Interest:

• Anglo-American forces destroyed or disabled three hundred Axis tanks in the course of the the Second Battle of El Alamein.

• General Ritter von Thoma, commander of the Afrika Korps, was one of the prisoners taken by the British at the Second Battle of El Alamein.

Bernard Law Montgomery by an unknown photographer

General Erwin Rommel 1941 by an unknown photographer

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Sources:

Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).

Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.

Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.