On October 23, 1942, in the El Alamein area of Egypt, the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Montgomery, launched a counterattack against the German-Italian coalition army "Afrika Korps" under the command of Rommel.
Since then, the Allies have gradually turned the tide in the North African theater.
So, why were the Allies able to win in the North African theater, let's take a look?
Speaking of all kinds of defeats on the battlefield in North Africa, we have to say that its initiator is "Italy".
In July 1940, the Italian army took advantage of the defeat of Britain and France in Western Europe to invade the British army in East Africa from Ethiopia, but was unexpectedly attacked by the British army**. The British army took advantage of the victory to regain lost territory in East Africa, and inflicted heavy losses on the Italian army in various battles in the North African theater, capturing as many as 130,000 enemies.
In February of the following year, Rommel, known as the "Desert Fox", led the German "Afrika Korps" into North Africa to reinforce the Italian army. Under the offensive of the German-Italian forces, the British army began to retreat from the Libyan region.
In July 1942, the German-Italian forces attacked Egypt from Libya and once reached the El Alamein area, which was only 350 kilometers from Cairo. However, at that time, the Allies controlled air and sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, and the German troops stationed in North Africa were unable to continue to advance due to problems such as troops and logistical supplies, and were forced to switch to strategic defense.
Then let's not only ask, why did Rommel insist on attacking when he knew that the logistics could not keep up?
On the one hand, all this is due to the overall strategic considerations of Germany.
On the other hand, the German army in North Africa also encountered a very difficult problem, that is, their pig-like teammate "Italy".
In fact, Italy can be said to have come to play soy sauce throughout World War II.
Don't talk about dragging your teammates, but also pit your allies. Military discipline is lax and does not know how to cooperate.
Even the German generals said that "in a battle in which Italy participates, the German army will allocate several more divisions to protect them." That's a real gas.
Italy has always used overwhelming strength superiority to invade others, and was finally defeated, so soon after the start of the Battle of El Alamein, the Italian army in the German-Italian coalition army was almost completely annihilated, and the German-Italian coalition army directly lost 40,000 people, many Italian troops surrendered on their own initiative before they could shoot, and even the officers took their subordinates to actively surrender, and finally there were too many prisoners, and the British army had to distribute tools to let Italian prisoners of war build their own prisoner of war camps.
At that time, the German-Italian army stationed 12 divisions in North Africa, with more than 100,000 men.
The German-Italian army defended the area southwest of El Alamein from the Mediterranean coast to the Katara Basin, while the British army had 11 divisions and 4 independent brigades in North Africa, with a total strength of 230,000.
On the night of October 23, 1942, the British launched an attack from the north and south sides of the German-Italian positions, and broke through the German defensive positions in the north of the front in just two days.
After that, the British army mobilized the main forces to continue the onslaught on the northern front, forcing the German army on the southern front to reinforce it.
After the German army went north to reinforce the army, the British army played a game of attacking the east and the west, and concentrated its forces on the southern front to launch a battle codenamed "pressurized", directly attacking the German and Italian lair, and it was surprisingly smooth, breaking through the enemy's defense area and advancing a lot to the west.
Seeing that the situation of the war was becoming more and more unfavorable to him, Rommel had to order a westward retreat, and on the way to retreat, Rommel had no intention of caring about the Italian army that had helped him, which directly led to the surrender of 4 divisions of Italian troops to the British army.
According to the statistics of the war after the fact, in this battle, the British army lost more than 7,000 people, while the German and Italian troops ** and the number of prisoners reached 60,000, which is a bit obvious.
The Eighth Army performed brilliant feats and won a historic victory.
The Battle of El Alamein ended with Montgomery's victory over Rommel!
The news reached Britain, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an exception and ordered churches in London to ring alarm bells to celebrate the victory. Victory, he said, "actually marks the key to fate." Before the Battle of El Alamein, we were invincible, and after the Battle of El Alamein, we are invincible. ”
The Battle of El Alamein also made Montgomery a hero in the hunt for the "Desert Fox", and he himself was later promoted to general, awarded the Knight of the Order of Bath, and was made Viscount El Alamein.
On September 1, 1944, Montgomery was officially made Field Marshal and held out until victory in World War II.
And his old rival, the famous flower of the Third German Reich, "Desert Fox" Rommel, has gradually withered since then.
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