Alamein

337 Pages·2002·5.14 MB·English

by  Stephen Bungay

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I THE STRATEGIC WAR
II THE TACTICAL WAR
III THE SUPPLY WAR
IV THE SOLDIERS’ WAR
V EL ALAMEIN – ROUND ONE
VI THE POLITICAL WAR
VII EL ALAMEIN – ROUND TWO
VIII EL ALAMEIN – ROUND THREE
IX PERSPECTIVES
X REPUTATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
The Western Desert
The Eastern Mediterranean
The First Battle of El Alamein
The Battle of Alam Halfa
The Second Battle of El Alamein
Table
Monthly Tonnage of Axis Supplies Delivered 1941—42

About the Author
Copyright
Sample Chapter from The Most Dangerous Enemy
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. The tiny station on the line from Alexandria to Mersa Matruh which
gave its name to the position where two of the three battles were fought
between July and November 1942. This is the first train to pass through
after the troops moved on. IWM E19087.
2. Sandstorms rolled unpredictably out of the desert, advancing walls of
dust and grit, turning an unfriendly environment into a laceratingly hostile
one. One temporarily covered the Axis advance on Alam el Halfa on 31
August 1942. IWM E17599
3. The British were able to use their railway to move supplies from
Alexandria to the front, a luxury denied to the Axis. These tanks are
Crusaders. The British needed lots of them, for they were continually
breaking down. IWM E11253
4. Lieutenant-General Sir Claude Auchinleck, known to all as ‘the Auk’,
who became C-in-C Middle East on 5 July 1941 until his dismissal in
August 1942. IWM K1197
5. Lieutenant-General Richard O’Connor, commander of the Western
Desert Force which between December 1940 and February 1941 gained
one of the British Army’s most impressive victories of the war against
more numerous but less mobile Italian adversaries. IWM E971
6. Rommel after some typically hard driving in his Horch staff car in
November 1941 during his withdrawal after the British ‘Crusader’
offensive. His captured goggles and scarf were invaluable desert
equipment, but they also provided the media with invaluable visual
symbols for the ‘Desert Fox’. Hulton Getty
7. Auchinleck, ‘the lonely soldier’, standing on the scrubby sand by the
coast road at the end of June 1942, watching his retreating army move
into positions on the ‘Alamein line’. Auchinleck’s self-effacing style and ill-
fitting uniforms made him a tough media proposition. E13881
8. An Italian soldier killed south of El Alamein. There was no dignity in
death. Bodies were turned black by the sun, and slowly moved as the
gases inside them expanded during the day and contracted at night. At
the time this picture was censored. IWM E14630
9. Images of endless lines of Italian prisoners escorted by just a few
British troops came to symbolise the first campaign in the desert. This
one was taken by Geoffrey Keating on 16 December 1940, one week into
O’Connor’s ‘raid’. IWM E1379
10. Marshal Graziani, commander of the Italian army defeated by
O’Connor in 1940, after his capture in Italy in 1945. IWM NA24746
11. Two of the leading allied war reporters, Alexander Clifford and Alan
Moorehead (standing), preparing to move on after a night in the desert.
Moorehead published three volumes about his North African experiences
during the war. Reprinted many times, his vivid African Trilogy is still in
print. IWM E13368
12. Invulnerable to Italian anti-tank guns, the Matilda infantry tank helped
the British to dominate the Italians psychologically as well as physically.
The only gun which could stop it was the German 88, which in turn
dominated British tank crews psychologically as well as physically. IWM
E1416
13. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park pictured in January 1943 in the Barracca
Gardens overlooking Valetta Harbour in Malta, enjoying the peace he
had done so much to establish. Having arrived on the island in July 1942,
he stopped the bombing in three weeks. IWM GM2550
14. The aircraft that gave Park the means of victory. A Spitfire V,
modified with a tropical filter to protect the engine from dust and sand, in
a blast pen behind some local admirers. IWM CM3226
15. The crippled tanker Ohio, lashed between two destroyers and
accompanied by minesweepers and tugs, approaching Valetta Harbour
on the evening of 15 August 1942. The last ship of convoy ‘Pedestal’ to
arrive in Malta, her cargo of fuel kept the Spitfires in the air. IWM A11261
16. A Sea Gladiator, said to be the aircraft christened Faith. Legend has
it that three Gladiators – Faith, Hope and Charity – were for a time the
only fighters defending Malta. Though untrue, the story helped to fortify
the defenders in days when faith was sorely needed. TRH Pictures
17. The battered and much-used red flag which was hoisted in Malta to
warn of air raids. Between 1 January and 24 July 1942, when Park’s
tactics started to take effect, there was only one 24-hour period in which
Malta was not raided. IWM CM3219
18. Rommel and Field Marshal ‘Smiling’ Albert Kesselring of the
Luftwaffe, who on 28 November 1941 was appointed theatre commander
in the Mediterranean. He was supposed to win the supply war and
support Rommel, a difficult enough job which Rommel made no easier.
Hulton Getty
19. Top fighter ace Hans-Joachim Marseille, the ‘Star of Africa’, and at
twenty-two the youngest Hauptmann in the Luftwaffe. The Nazis turned
him into a heroic superman, but he really just wanted to fly fast
aeroplanes and lark about with his chums, as he does here. DIZ-
Süddeutsche Verlag
20. Creating the ‘Monty’ brand. Montgomery arrived in the desert in
August 1942 as an ordinary general, seen here in regulation peaked cap
with Herbert Lumsden, the troublesome commander of his armoured
corps. He quickly became ‘the Eighth Army Commander’, with an
Australian slouch hat covered in unit badges, which in October the press
corps was already labelling ‘famous’. The third and final stage was to
give him a beret with two badges. This is the first picture of him as
‘Monty’, with one of the perpetrators of the deed, his ADC John Poston
(who took the second photograph), behind him in the turret of a Grant
tank. The picture went round the world. The ‘Monty’ brand stood for:
‘victory’ without unnecessary loss of life, achieved through ‘colossal
cracks’ that went according to plan. IWM E18416, E17865, E18980
21. The crew of an early A10 cruiser tank eating their Christmas dinner in
1940. Their pudding was made of biscuit, prunes, marmalade and rum.
Even in the early stages of the desert war, dress regulations went by the
board. IWM E1500
22. Cecil Beaton came to Egypt on behalf of the Ministry of Information in
1942. He captured the strange atmosphere inside a tank. It could turn
from a cosy home into a claustrophobic battle station, into a trap and
finally into a tomb. IWM CMB2110
23. Another of Beaton’s series. Without goggles, the driver would be
blinded by dust. In action, he would close down the heavy hatch and peer
through a slit, relying on his commander for directions. Simply handling
the machine was mentally and physically exhausting. IWM CBM1449
24. Keeping in touch with home was vital for morale. These official
Christmas cards had forms on which to write a short message. Santa has
abandoned his reindeer for a camel – with a ‘Victory V’ sign on its hump.
Courtesy of Madeline Weston
25. Plod and prod. Mine clearance was one of the most dangerous and
stressful jobs of all. At Alamein, the engineers worked in half-hour shifts,
which was considered to be all a normal man could take at one stretch.
IWM E16229
26. Winston Churchill speaking to Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie
Morshead, the able and pugnacious commander of 9th Australian
Division, on 5 August 1942 during his first visit to the desert. The
Australians were to play a critical role in the coming battle. IWM E15322
27. Churchill witnessing what he called the ‘reviving ardour’ of the army
during his return to the desert, as the 5th Seaforth Highlanders practise
PT in accordance with Montgomery’s plan to harden his men up for what
he knew would be a gruelling fight. IWM E15963
28. Major-General Alec Gatehouse, commander of 10th Armoured
Division, addressing his men on 22 October, the eve of Montgomery’s
battle. Like his superior Lumsden, Gatehouse clashed with Montgomery
during the battle. When Montgomery published his memoirs in 1958 the
sparks flew again. IWM E18458
29. The ebullient Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, whom Montgomery
appointed to command XIII Corps, presenting medals won during the
Battle of Alam el Halfa, in which it played a central role. In the final battle
of Alamein it was restricted to what Horrocks called ‘noises off’. IWM
E17838
30. The devastating night barrage on 23 October 1942 became
legendary, Churchill later claiming that it consisted of ‘nearly a thousand
guns’ and Montgomery ‘over a thousand.’ Probably 744 were actually
used, most of them 25-pounders like this one. They were brilliantly