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User:Hungrydog55/sandbox/military/mediterranean/1942-08 AlamelHalfa oob

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British army and corps commanders
Lt.-Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery
Lt.-Gen. Brian Horrocks

The Battle of Alam el Halfa between the British Commonwealth and the European Axis Powers Germany and Italy took place between 30 August and 5 September 1942 south of El Alamein during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War.

Unlike in previous engagements, Lt-Gen Montgomery ordered that the tanks were to be used as anti-tank guns, remaining in their defensive positions on the ridge. When Axis attacks on the ridge failed and short on supplies, Rommel ordered a withdrawal. Montgomery did not exploit his defensive victory, preferring to continue the methodical build up of strength for his autumn offensive, the Second Battle of El Alamein. With the failure at Alam Halfa, the Axis forces in Africa lost the initiative and Axis strategic aims in Africa were no longer possible.

Allied forces edit

  Eighth Army
Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery

  XIII Corps
Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks

Axis forces edit

 
GFM Erwin Rommel

Panzer Armee Afrika
Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel

Corps deployed north to south:

  Italian X Corps
Lieutenant general Edoardo Nebbia
17th Infantry Division "Pavia" (Major General Nazzareno Scattaglia)
27th Infantry Division "Brescia" (Major General Brunetto Brunetti)
185th Infantry Division "Folgore" (Major General Enrico Frattini)
  Italian XX Motorised Corps
Major General Giuseppe De Stefanis
101st Motorised Division "Trieste" (Major General Francesco La Ferla)
132nd Armoured Division "Ariete" (Major General Adolfo Infante)
133rd Armoured Division "Littorio" (Major General Gervasio Bitossi)
  Deutsches Afrika Korps
Generalleutnant Walther Nehring[d]
15th Panzer Division (Generalmajor Gustav von Vaerst)
21st Panzer Division (Generalmajor Georg von Bismarck)
90th Light Division (Generalmajor Ulrich Kleemann)

Tanks in use by both sides edit

  •  
    The Panzerjäger-Abteilung 39 (part of "Kampfgruppe Gräf", part of the 21st Panzer Division) of the Afrika Korps on the move, 1942
  •  
    A British Valentine tank in North Africa

Deutsches Africa Korps had a total of 472 tanks, 229 German and 243 Italian.[2] The Germans had 27 of the Panzer IV F2 equipped with the long-barreled 75mm gun. This longer gun gave the Mark IV superior range than the Allied tanks.

The Allies had 500 tanks that would see action during this battle. 170 of these were M3 Grants, the best tank the Allies had access to at this time. The remaining tanks consisted of M3 Stuarts light tanks, Crusader Mk II cruiser tanks and Valentine infantry tanks.[citation needed]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Captured 4 September
  2. ^ Detached from 44th Division
  3. ^ Wounded
  4. ^ Wounded in an air attack on 31 August and replaced by Rommel's Chief-of-Staff Oberst Fritz Bayerlein)[1]

References edit

  1. ^ Bungay p. 136
  2. ^ Panzer Battles by MAJ.GEN.F.W.VON MELLENTH1N

Sources edit

  • Buffetaut, Yves (1995). Operation Supercharge-La seconde bataille d'El Alamein (in French). Histoire Et Collections.
  • Bungay, Stephen (2002). Alamein. Aurum Press.
  • Hammond, Bryn (2012). El Alamein: The Battle that Turned the Tide of the Second World War. Osprey Publishing.
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