(11/11) Battlefield II El Alamein Ep10 World War II

Subscribe to Excellent World War II Videos. Updated Weekly
On July 1942, General Erwin Rommel and the Italo-German Panzer Armee Afrika, (part of the Deutsches Afrika Korps) were only 113km (70 miles) from Alexandria. The situation was so serious that Winston Churchill made the long journey to Egypt to discover for himself what needed to be done. Churchill decided to make changes to the command structure. General Harold Alexander was placed in charge of British land forces in the Middle East and Bernard Montgomery became commander of the Eighth Army.
On 30th August, 1942, Erwin Rommel attacked at Alam el Halfa but was repulsed by the Eighth Army. Montgomery responded to this attack by ordering his troops to reinforce the defensive line from the coast to the impassable Qattara Depression. Montgomery was now able to make sure that Rommel and the German Army was unable to make any further advances into Egypt.
Over the next six weeks Montgomery began to stockpile vast quantities of weapons and ammunition to make sure that by the time he attacked he possessed overwhelming firepower. By the middle of October the Eighth Army totaled 195,000 men, 1,351 tanks and 1,900 pieces of artillery. This included large numbers of recently delivered Sherman M4 and Grant M3 tanks.
On 23rd October Montgomery launched Operation Lightfoot with the largest artillery bombardment since the First World War. The attack came at the worst time for the Deutsches Afrika Korps as Erwin Rommel was on sick leave in Austria. His replacement, General George Stumme, died of a heart-attack the day after the 900 gun bombardment of the German lines. Stume was replaced by General Ritter von Thoma and Adolf Hitler phoned Rommel to order him to return to Egypt immediately.
The Germans defended their positions well and after two days the Eighth Army had made little progress and Bernard Montgomery ordered an end to the attack. When Erwin Rommel returned he launched a counterattack at Kidney Depression (27th October). Montgomery now returned to the offensive and the 9th Australian Division created a salient in the enemy positions.
Winston Churchill was disappointed by the Eighth Army's lack of success and accused Montgomery of fighting a "half-hearted" battle. Montgomery ignored these criticisms and instead made plans for a new offensive, Operation Supercharge.
On 1st November 1942, Montgomery launched an attack on the Deutsches Afrika Korps at Kidney Ridge. After initially resisting the attack, Rommel decided he no longer had the resources to hold his line and on the 3rd November he ordered his troops to withdraw. However, Adolf Hitler overruled his commander and the Germans were forced to stand and fight.
The next day Montgomery ordered his men forward. The Eighth Army broke through the German lines and Erwin Rommel, in danger of being surrounded, was forced to retreat. Those soldiers on foot, including large numbers of Italian soldiers, were unable to move fast enough and were taken prisoner.
For a while it looked like the British would cut off Rommel's army but a sudden rain storm on 6th November turned the desert into a quagmire and the chasing army was slowed down. Rommel, now with only twenty tanks left, managed to get to Sollum on the Egypt-Libya border.
On 8th November Erwin Rommel learned of the Allied invasion of Morocco and Algeria that was under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His depleted army now faced a war on two fronts.
The British Army recaptured Tobruk on 12th November, 1942. During the El Alamein campaign half of Rommel's 100,000 man army was killed, wounded or taken prisoner. He also lost over 450 tanks and 1,000 guns. The British and Commonwealth forces suffered 13,500 casualties and 500 of their tanks were damaged. However, of these, 350 were repaired and were able to take part in future battles.
Winston Churchill was convinced that the battle of El Alamein marked the turning point in the war and ordered the ringing of church bells all over Britain. As he said later: "Before Alamein we never had a victory, after Alamein we never had a defeat."( .spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• World
• War
• II
• Erwin
• Rommel
• El
• Alamein
• General
• Dwight
• D.
• Eisenhower
• German
• Panzer
• Allied
• Winston
• Churchill
• 8th
• Army
• Montgomery
• Alexander
• Tobruk
• Commonwealth

[cjms08]

try watching how Hitler lost the war and how he messed the the armies plans to invade Russia and Briton and if he left the original plans alone the this would have been a totally different war its kind of scary how close they came to winning

[HoustonGD]

If someone like Field Marshall von Manstein commanded the Whermacht, I can't imagine what would have happened. Fortunately the Allies secret weapon, Hitler, was in place. Thanks for your comments CJMS08

[metho20]

hmm this volume was not as good as the others the massive recap and also the constatn repition of both infromation adn footage took away from wat could have been better, that saiud it was still a great watch.

[HoustonGD]

Battlefield II seems to be a rough draft for a better production lol. Battlefield I is far superior

[NGP58]

Yet another great volume! Thanks GD.

[MrPpavlouk]

Good upload, thanks.

[18tangles]

@tjhoenecke And who on the American side was responsible for Heligen Wood Americas main disaster in europe. Montgomery was an egotistical prick, Alexander was better and Slim was the best of the lot.U.S. Patton another egotist, anyone know what Clarke was like?Any others. We Aussies had a couple of good ones but they were nobbled by Blamey the bastard. However I think Monty was nobbled himself by Churchill who was always pushing, not a generals bumhole Churchill.

[18tangles]

well done,and regardless of what the Americans may think, this was the end of the Germans in Africa as an attacking army, defensive still dangerous .

[musa77751]

BRAVO!!!

[tjhoenecke]

I'll give Monty credit for North Africa, but he should have been court-martialed over Market-Garden. And he might have been, if not for the fact that most of those who would have had to sit in judgement over him had made the same stubborn mistakes he did. There was just no way XXX Corps or anyone else could have gotten to Arnhem in the time alotted, not on that road. And some of his subordinates told him so at the outset. But Monty always did have a way of rewriting his history.

[tjhoenecke]

@xxxx30pack Perhaps, but did Monty necessarily KNOW that at the time? Also, just because your opponent no longer has the strength to stay on the battlefield doesn't necessarily mean he's weak enough for you to annihilate him. How many guns, tank destroyers, assault guns, and infantry did Rommel still have left, besides those ten tanks? How much fuel and supplies did Monty have left, and how much energy did his men, after almost two straight weeks of fighting? Easier said than done....

[Bullettube]

Was General Monty Lucky? Of course he was, he knew it and used that fact to the allies advantage. Napoleon was once asked to promote an officer to higher rank and after being told how good the officer was he asked;" Yes he sounds good, but is he lucky?, because luck and an officers ability to recognize it was as important as his bravery and ability combined"

[ukenutcase]

my dad was in the 8th army rasc 1st division (rhinos) he said the night the guns went off was like all hell broke loose

[ukenutcase]

my dad was in the 8th army rasc 1st division (rhinos) he said the night the guns went of was like all hell broke loose

[101Dobermanns]

Enjoyed every bit of it, though. Thanks GD.

[TheRawke]

What would you await from an Austrian Private? With all the high Generals lacking the balls to tell Hitler where to go, the only possible ending was total defeat for Germany. Hitler basically had NO idea what strategy or tactic are, and he also overestimated the power of certain "secret weapons".