"invention by the Polish officer Józef Kosacki. His invention, known as the Polish mine detector, was used by the Allies alongside mechanical methods, to clear the German mine fields during the Second Battle of El Alamein when 500 units were shipped to Field Marshal Montgomery's Eighth Army. The Nazis used captured civilians who were chased across minefields to detonate the explosives. According to Laurence Rees ""Curt von Gottberg, the SS-Obergruppenführer who, during 1943, conducted another huge anti-partisan action called Operation Kottbus on the eastern border of Belarus, reported that 'approximately two to three thousand local people were blown up in"
"defeat in the Battle of Mersa Matruh, the Eighth Army fell back to El Alamein. In August 1942, General Harold Alexander replaced Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, and Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery became commander of the Eighth Army. Robertson knew both well; Alexander had been a fellow student at Camberley, and Montgomery had been an instructor, having been nominated to attend staff college by Robertson's father. Lieutenant General Sir Wilfrid Lindsell, the Chief Administrative Officer at Middle East HQ had also been one of his instructors. Robertson was happy to go along with Montgomery's organisation of the staff under which"
"at the end of August 1942 at Bir Ridge at the Battle of Alam el Halfa. The Second Battle of El Alamein lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942 and was a watershed in the Western Desert Campaign. the Allied victory at El Alamein ended Axis hopes of occupying Egypt, controlling access to the Suez Canal and gaining access to Middle Eastern oil fields. The defeat at El Alamein marked the end of Axis expansion in Africa. Following the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Eighth"
"Richard McCreery General Sir Richard Loudon McCreery (1 February 1898 – 18 October 1967), was a career soldier of the British Army, who was decorated for leading one of the last cavalry actions in the First World War. During the Second World War, he was chief of staff to Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein, and later commanded the British Eighth Army, fighting in the Italian Campaign from October 1944 until the end of the war, leading it to victory in the final offensive in Italy. Richard (Dick) Loudon McCreery was"
"El Alamein and the advance of the Eighth Army to Tripoli, for which Alexander was elevated to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and, after the Anglo-American forces of the First Army (under Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson) from Operation Torch and the Eighth Army converged in Tunisia in February 1943, they were brought under the unified command of a newly formed 18th Army Group headquarters, commanded by Alexander and reporting to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) at Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ). General Omar Bradley, an American general"
"First Battle of El Alamein 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 forces (Germany and Italy) of the Panzer Army Africa (, which included the under Field Marshal () Erwin Rommel) and Allied (British Imperial and Commonwealth) forces (Britain, British India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) of the Eighth Army (General Claude Auchinleck). The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt. Axis positions near El Alamein, only from Alexandria, were dangerously close to the ports"
"halt Rommel and was replaced when Auchinleck himself took direct command of the army. The Panzer Army Afrika were eventually stopped by Auchinleck at the First Battle of El Alamein. Auchinleck, wishing to pause and regroup the Eighth Army, which had expended a lot of its strength in halting Rommel, came under intense political pressure from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to strike back immediately. However, he proved unable to build on his success at Alamein and was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Middle-East in August 1942 by General Harold Alexander and as Eighth Army commander by Lieutenant-General William Gott. Gott was"
"the appointment, which was then taken by General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. Alexander presided over Montgomery's victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. After the Anglo-American forces from Operation Torch and the Western Desert forces met in the Tunisia Campaign in January 1943, he became deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ). With Eighth Army passing to AFHQ's command, Middle East Command became somewhat of a military backwater. General Wilson succeeded Alexander as its commander-in-chief and during his tenure it mounted only one significant operation: the unsuccessful Dodecanese Campaign from September to November 1943. The"
"which 150 Germans were killed and another 140 taken prisoner, against which the Australians lost 39 killed, 109 wounded and another 25 missing. By late October 1942, the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, decided to launch his own offensive in the Western Desert, amassing a force of some 220,000 personnel supported by 1,100 tanks and 900 artillery pieces. The 9th Division was positioned in the northern sector of the Eighth Army's front at El Alamein, nearest the coast, as part of British XXX Corps. This sector was to effect the main thrust of the Allied attack. While"
"he thought there had been sufficient preparation for a decisive victory, and put into action his beliefs with the gathering of resources, detailed planning, the training of troops—especially in clearing minefields and fighting at night—and in the use of 252 of the latest American-built Sherman tanks, 90 M7 Priest self-propelled howitzers, and making a personal visit to every unit involved in the offensive. By the time the offensive was ready in late October, Eighth Army had 231,000 men on its ration strength. The Second Battle of El Alamein began on 23 October 1942, and ended 12 days later with one"
"the infantry battle had been won. Commanded by Brigadier Edward C. N. Custance, the 8th Armoured Brigade was equipped with and when it took part in Operation Supercharge, better known as the Battle of El Alamein. The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry found a gap in the Axis defences and an attack was made that broke through and started the rout of the ""Afrika Korps"". The Brigade was then ordered to find the southern flank of the Axis defences. Driving across country it moved into the desert reaching the coast road at Galal and the German retreat was cut in two. Here,"
"and became the champion amateur National Hunt jockey in the 1950s. His youngest son is the psychologist and author Charles McCreery. Richard McCreery General Sir Richard Loudon McCreery (1 February 1898 – 18 October 1967), was a career soldier of the British Army, who was decorated for leading one of the last cavalry actions in the First World War. During the Second World War, he was chief of staff to Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein, and later commanded the British Eighth Army, fighting in the Italian Campaign from October 1944"
"killed in an air crash on his way to take up his command and so Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was appointed in his place. Alexander and Montgomery were able to resist the pressure from Churchill, building the Army's strength and adding a pursuit formation, X Corps, to the Army's XIII and XXX Corps. At the beginning of November 1942 the Eighth Army defeated Rommel in the decisive Second Battle of El Alamein, pursuing the defeated Axis army across Libya and reaching the Mareth defensive line on the Tunisian border in February 1943, where it came under the control of 18th Army"
"entire Eighth Army, but he was killed when his aircraft was intercepted and shot down over Egypt. He was replaced by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery. At the end of June, the Axis forces made a second attempt to break through the Allied defences at El Alamein at Alam Halfa, but were unsuccessful. After a lengthy period of build-up and training, the Eighth Army launched a major offensive, decisively defeating the Italian-German army during the Second Battle of El Alamein in late October 1942, driving the Axis forces westward and capturing Tripoli in mid-January 1943. By February, the Eighth Army was facing"
"killed, six dying of their wounds and 125 wounded. In August, Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery took over command of the British Eighth Army and he succeeded in preventing the Axis advance during the Battle of Alam el Halfa. Montgomery then began preparing for an Allied offensive against the Axis forces that were now entrenching themselves. The Second Battle of El Alamein started on 23 October and finished on 7 November with Axis forces withdrawing westwards towards Fuka to avoid encirclement. The 2/48th Battalion was engaged around Tel el Eisa, on the right of the Allied line near the coast, during"
"as commander-in-Chief Middle East Command and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took over the Eighth Army under him. After victory in the defensive battle of Alam Halfa in late August and early September, the Eighth Army went on the offensive in October 1942 and decisively defeated the Axis at the Second El Alamein. The Axis forces were pursued through Libya and the capital Tripoli was captured by Eighth Army in January 1943. After the advance of the Eighth Army into eastern Tunisia in early 1943, 18th Army Group was formed to control Eighth Army and First Army which was attacking Tunisia from"
"November 1942, the British 9th Armoured Brigade was to have advanced in support of an attack by the Division. However, it was stopped in the minefield lanes by the 15th Panzer and 90th Light Divisions; the following morning, the armour continued to be attacked, suffering heavy losses. However, the 9th Armoured Brigade's sacrifice had made the follow-up successes possible. Following the victory at Alamein, the Eighth Army advanced west through Libya to El Agheila. For much of this time, Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, the Eighth Army commander since August 1942, was obliged to maintain a relatively small forward force because"
"Carpathian Brigade. In reserve, the Eighth Army had the 2nd South African Infantry Division making a total of seven divisions. By the time the army was fighting the Second Battle of El Alamein, it had reached a size of over 220,000 men in 10 divisions and several independent brigades. The Eighth Army first went into action as an Army as part of Operation ""Crusader"", the Allied operation to relieve the besieged city of Tobruk, on 17 November 1941, when it crossed the Egyptian frontier into Libya to attack Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa. On 26 November the Commander-in-Chief Middle East"
"British Eighth Army confronting the German Afrika Korps and the Italian Army was commanded successively by General Sir Alan Cunningham and Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie. Ritchie was dismissed after defeats at the hands of Rommel. Auchinleck assumed the field command himself and the Italo-German advance was halted at the First Battle of El Alamein. The ""Auk,"" as he was known to his troops, struggled with the innate conservatism of the army establishment to get the armoured and infantry wings of the army to fight together on the German pattern, but had only limited success. Rommel's opponent, Auchinleck (and his predecessor Wavell),"
"in the action, the stand by 150th Brigade, and the breakout by 50th Division are notable, while the low point was the loss of Tobruk with its entire garrison during the withdrawal to Egypt. XIII Corps was able to withdraw in good order to the Alamein position and was instrumental in fighting the Axis to a standstill there in the First Battle of El Alamein. In August 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill removed General Sir Claude Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief Middle East and acting General Officer Commanding Eighth Army. Gott's aggressive, somewhat impetuous, personality appealed to Churchill, and he was"
"operational, Rommel defeated the British Army in Libya. Auchinleck rallied his forces at El Alamein and asked Clarke to draft plans for delaying the Axis advance, giving the Allies time to withdraw. Operation Sentinel was designed to convince Rommel, using camouflage, fakery and radio deception, that substantial British armour sat between him and the retreating Eighth Army. In spite of his success at El Alamein Auchinleck was replaced by Harold Alexander on , Clarke's third commander in under two years. Bernard Montgomery was handed control of the Eighth Army and instructed to push Rommel back. Montgomery knew Clarke, having taught"
"Within weeks Kress von Kressenstein was reinforced by the 7th and the 54th Divisions, and by October 1917 the Eighth Army commanded by Kress von Keressenstein had been established with headquarters at Huleikat north of Huj. The EEF's strength, which could have supported an advance to Jerusalem, was now decimated. Murray and Dobell were relieved of their commands and sent back to England. The line secured during the battle by the EEF was consolidated and strengthened and trench warfare established from Sheikh Ailin on the Mediterranean coast to Sheikh Abbas and on to Tel el Jemmi. This line was to"
"Eisenhower thus became Commander-in-Chief, Allied Force. Towards the end of 1942, there was a need to unify command of the Allied forces in North Africa, since those from the west, the British First Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson, landed during Operation Torch, and those from the east, the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery, that had fought and won the Second Battle of El Alamein, were now close enough together to need coordination. Therefore, in February 1943, AFHQ assumed control of the Eighth Army advancing from the east as well. Eisenhower remained"
"Eighth Army, but he was killed when the transport plane he was travelling in was shot down by Luftwaffe fighters; Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was then appointed commander of the Eighth Army. Faced with long supply lines and lacking reinforcements, and well aware of massive Allied reinforcements in men and materiel on the way, Rommel decided to strike the Allies while their build-up was incomplete. The two armoured divisions of the ""Afrika Korps"", together with a force made up of the reconnaissance units of Panzer Army Africa, led the attack but the Allies stopped them at the Alam el Halfa ridge"
"the Eighth Army (its chief gunnery officer). Montgomery, who thought very highly of Kirkman and requested him specifically, wanted to replace the Eighth Army's then CRA, Brigadier Noel Martin, and to replace him ""I asked for Brigadier Kirkman from England whom I regarded as the best artilleryman in the British Army"". Kirkman arrived in Egypt in early September, shortly after the Battle of Alam el Halfa, and his first night there was spent in Montgomery's guest caravan, where Montgomery explained to him his plans for his forthcoming offensive, to be known as the Second Battle of El Alamein. He then"
"Matruh, Egypt. Over 359 troops were killed and 560 others were wounded. The Western Desert Force later became HQ XIII Corps, one of the major parts of the British Eighth Army which, from August 1942 was commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Montgomery. The 7th Armoured Division took part in most of the major battles of the North African Campaign, including both battles of El Alamein (the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942, which stopped the Axis advance, and the Second Battle of El Alamein in October/November 1942, which turned the tide of the war in North Africa). The"
"and cities of Egypt, the base facilities of the Commonwealth forces and the Suez Canal. However, the Axis forces were too far from their base at Tripoli in Libya to remain at El Alamein indefinitely, which led both sides to accumulate supplies for more offensives, against the constraints of time and distance. Following their defeat at the Battle of Gazala in Eastern Libya in June 1942, the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie, had retreated east from the Gazala line into north-western Egypt as far as Mersa Matruh, roughly inside the border. Ritchie had decided not to hold"
"on 25 June and assumed command of the Eighth Army through the First Battle of El Alamein, where he stopped Rommel's advance. In August, Auchinleck was replaced as Eighth Army commander by the XIII Corps commander, Lieutenant-General William Gott and as C-in-C Middle East Command by General Sir Harold Alexander. Gott was killed when his aircraft was shot down and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was appointed as his replacement. In 2017, James Holland wrote, The Eighth Army lost wounded or captured, including taken at Tobruk Axis casualties were and a smaller number of Italian losses. On 30 June, the Afrika Korps"
"the 20th Brigade—the 2/48th proceeded to train in high terrain and temperatures. In late June 1942, Axis forces commanded by General Erwin Rommel, crossed the Egyptian frontier as part of an offensive aimed at capturing Alexandria. After making a brief stand around Mersa Matruh, the British Eighth Army was forced to withdraw towards the Alamein line. In response, the 9th Division was transported south from Syria, and hurriedly committed to First Battle of El Alamein. On 1 July, Rommel's forces launched a determined assault on the Alamein line, and on 7 July the 9th Division was ordered to launch a"
"7th Armoured Division, now consisting of the 22nd Armoured and 131st Infantry Brigades and commanded by Major General John Harding, fought in many major battles of the Tunisian Campaign, taking part in the Battle of El Agheila in December. By January 1943 the Eighth Army had reached Tripoli where a victory parade was held, with the 7th Armoured Division taking part. Among the witnesses was Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, and General Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). The division, now commanded by Major General George Erskine after Harding was severely injured in January,"
"through, which had caused both sides to fail to end the desert campaign, after gaining tactical success. Montgomery did not want his tanks being wasted on futile attacks against Rommel's anti-tank screen, something that they had frequently done in the past, handing the initiative to the Axis forces. Rommel complained to Kesselring, ""The swine isn't attacking!"". Montgomery's refusal kept his forces intact and the Eighth Army accumulated supplies for the offensive in October that came to be known as the Second Battle of El Alamein. Battle of Alam el Halfa The Battle of Alam el Halfa took place between 30"
"included the Second Battle of El Alamein, a turning point in the Western Desert Campaign. He subsequently commanded the British Eighth Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy. He was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation ""Overlord"" from the initial landings until after the Battle of Normandy. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the campaign in North West Europe. The failed airborne attempt to bridge the Rhine at Arnhem in Holland was with 21st Army Group personnel, however was successful with a subsequent"
"an anti-tank battery, a light anti-aircraft battery and various other support units. The brigade's most notable action was in the Battle of El Alamein from 23 October to 4 November 1942. For the battle, the brigade was attached to 10th Armoured Division and equipped with 2 Grants, 93 Shermans and 45 Crusaders for a total of 140 tanks. On the night of 24/25 October, the brigade took part in the unsuccessful thrust by 10th Armoured Division from Miteirya Ridge. The leading unit, 8th Armoured Brigade, was caught on their start line at 22:00 – zero hour – by an air"