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El Alamein October–November 1942

I want to congratulate you on the magnificent work your Division has done on the right part of the line. Your men are absolutely splendid and the part they have played is beyond all praise.

[General Montgomery sent this message to General Morshead, quoted in John Glenn, Tobruk to Tarakan, p.14]

1942. Study of a machine gun and crew in the western desert
A machine gun crew photographed soon after the Australians had repulsed a German attack on a ridge at El Alamein, November 1942. [AWM 013660]

Between 1940 and late 1942 the British Empire and Dominion forces struggled against the German and Italian 'Axis' forces in North Africa as the Axis forces tried to capture the Suez Canal and take control of the Middle East oilfields.

On 1 September 1942, Australians from the 2/15th Battalion crossed a minefield and seized an enemy post about 3 kilometres from Tel el Eisa, near El Alamein. They were forced to withdraw, their brief raid costing 39 Australian lives, 100 wounded and 25 missing.

Gunners of the 2/8th Field Regiment AIF fire a 25-pounder field gun at German positions on the coastal sector, El Alamein. One man is seen about to place shell in breech. Pile of empty shell-cases on ground.
Gunners of the 2/8th Field Regiment AIF fire a 25-pounder field gun at German positions on the coastal sector, El Alamein. November 1942. [AWM 024513]

Seven weeks later, on 23 October 1942, El Alamein in the western desert of Egypt became the scene of one of the major battles of World War II. The British Eighth Army, which included the 9th Australian Division under Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead, was pitted against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel with four German and eight Italian divisions.

During the next 10 days, aircrews of the Royal Air Force's Desert Air Force, which included men from the Royal Australian Air Force, flew many sorties in support of the ferocious ground battles. Rommel began to withdraw his troops to the Libyan border at dawn on 4 November, ending the Battle of El Alamein, but the Allies pursued their defeated enemies until May 1943 when the Axis forces in North Africa finally surrendered.

The Battle of El Alamein was the last great imperial battle. More than 13,500 men in the Eighth Army were killed, wounded or missing including 2,694 Australians from the 9th Division, approximately one-fifth of the Eighth Army's total casualties.

The struggle at the 'saucer'

2/32nd Australian Infantry Battalion holding German counter-attack at El Alamein, Western Desert, Egypt, on 31 October 1942. The men are from B Company and the tank depicted is a German Mark IV C model.
2/32nd Battalion holding German counter-attack, El Alamein, 31 October 1942, William Dargie, 1943 [Oil on hardboard, 39 x 45.4 cm AWM ART22251]

Field Marshall Montgomery, Commander of the British Eighth Army, originally planned his break out operation, 'Super-charge', for the night of 31 October-1 November 1942. However, to ensure that it was adequately planned and prepared, the attack was postponed until the night of 1-2 November. During this planning stage it was vital that the pressure remained on the enemy and the 9th Australian Division launched an ambitious attack with two brigades on the night of 31 October-1 November. The 2/32nd Battalion's role was to capture the enemy's position at the main road at Barrel Hill. Forming defensive flanks to the north, northwest and west, they would form a screen for the 2/48th and the 2/24th Battalions to advance. In the last stage of the attack, the 2/32nd would provide the 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion with anti-tank gun and machine-gun support.

On the night of 30 October 1942, the 2/32nd Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel Balfe assembled for its attack due to begin at 10 pm. A German sniper shot at two of the battalion's officers who were reconnoitering before the attack, killing one of the officers. Casualties increased during their advance on the railway line. Despite their increasing casualties, the Australians captured the vital bridgehead known as the 'saucer', the 1 kilometre area which included the German medical post, the Blockhouse, Barrel Hill and a crossing in the railway embankment. During the next day the Australians struggled to hold the area as together with British troops they fought a furious battle against the counter-attack by German tanks. By the evening of 1 November the exhausted and depleted Australian units were still holding their positions at the 'saucer'.

The Eighth Army launched 'Operation Supercharge' at 1.05 am on 2 November.

Major-General Leslie Morshead, who commanded the 9th Australian Division, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at El Alamein on 5 August 1942
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery wearing an Australian slouch which displays a collection of unit badges around the crown
A conference of unit commanders plan battlefield strategies around a sand map at the headquarters of the Australian 20th Brigade in October 1942
Members of the 9th Division concert party give an open-air concert at El Alamein in October 1942
Men of the 9th Division prepare barbed wire fences along a new line of defence just to the east of El Alamein in late 1942
Miss Betty Dettman, a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), washes some linen at the 2/6th Australian General Hospital (AGH) located at Gaza Ridge, Palestine
A Wellington bomber is worked on by ground crew before one of the many raids undertaken by the Royal Air Force’s Desert Air Force to bomb enemy bases and harbours
Individual mess tins hang on the left-hand post of a cookhouse at the rear of the Australian lines at El Alamein
Members of the ‘Alamein Yachting Club Squadron’ try out their boats, made from salvaged hessian and corrugated iron, near El Alamein in October 1942
Salvation Army Commissioner Tibbs delivers a sermon to troops within sound of the guns at El Alamein in November 1942. The service was held in a gully protected from enemy aircraft by anti-aircraft posts on the surrounding heights

Related content

An RAAF Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk fighter pilot flying low over the airfield arrives back from a dawn patrol, watched by a group of squadron members, one of whom gives a thumbs-up signal and another points left. Egypt, October 1942

An RAAF fighter pilot arriving back from a dawn patrol, landing a Curtiss P-40 'Kittyhawk' at an airfield in Egypt, October 1942. [AWM MED0680]

Propaganda leaflets using a rough copy of the 9th Division platypus over a boomerang emblem. Wording on leaflets 'Diggers! you are defending Alamain Box! What about Port Darwin?' 'Aussies! The Yankees are having a jolly good time in your country And you?'

Propaganda leaflets using a rough copy of the 9th Division platypus and boomerang emblems. The Germans dropped these over the Australian troops at El Alamein in September 1942. [AWM 025015]

The El Alamein Railway station cemetery in Egypt. Depicts baron landscape with hundreds of mounds topped with wooden crosses. In the distance a dust storm is working up about to blot out the sun.

The El Alamein Railway station cemetery in Egypt. [AWM 024831]

Sapper Bill Rudd [No: 0200, Australians at War Film Archive]

Bill Rudd was a sapper with the 2/7th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers in the 9th Australian Division at El Alamein. In this interview excerpt he discusses the night of 26-27 July 1942 when more than 400 officers and men in the 2/28th Battalion were forced to surrender to the Germans at Ruin Ridge.

Red Shield on the Battlefront

This silent film shot by war photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley in 1942 presents images of the Salvation Army in the Western Desert.[AWM F01827]

Father Christmas under shellfire

This silent film taken by war photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley in December 1942, less than 2000 yards from the German lines, shows the men purchasing gifts for their families. [AWM F01831]

Gas alarm

This silent film taken by war photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley shows nurses of the 2/5th Australian General Hospital receiving instruction on gas respirators in the western desert in April 1941. [AWM F01078]

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