Analysis of the battle

Analysis of the battle


It may almost be said, "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat."
– Winston Churchill.
It had not been the first time that the Allies had had numerical superiority in men and equipment in the Western Desert but never had it been so complete and across all arms. Furthermore, while in the past—except in field artillery—they had struggled with the quality of their equipment and its ability to match the opposition, with the arrival of Sherman tanks, 6-pounder anti-tank guns and the Spitfire in the Western Desert, this was no longer the case.
Montgomery had always envisioned the battle as being one of attrition similar to those fought in the Great War, and had correctly predicted both the length of the battle and the number of Allied casualties.[99] Allied artillery was superbly handled. Allied air support was excellent in contrast to the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica which offered little or no support to ground forces, preferring to engage in air-to-air combat. This overwhelming air superiority had a huge effect on the battle and not only because of its physical impact. As Montgomery later wrote
The moral effect of air action [on the enemy] is very great and out of all proportion to the material damage inflicted. In the reverse direction, the sight and sound of our own air forces operating against the enemy have an equally satisfactory effect on our own troops. A combination of the two has a profound influence on the most important single factor in war—morale.
In the end, the Allies' victory was all but total. Axis casualties of 37,000 amounted to over 30% of their total force. Allied casualties of 13,500 were by comparison a remarkably small proportion of their total force.[83] The effective strength of Panzerarmee after the battle amounted to some 5,000 troops, 20 tanks, 20 anti-tank guns and 50 field guns.[83] But the Allies' immediate exploitation of the victory was poor. They were taken by surprise by Rommel's withdrawal and this combined with confusion caused by reorganisation as units were re-allocated between the three Corps meant they were slow in pursuit, failing to cut off Rommel first at Fuka and then Mersa Matruh.
El Alamein was the first great offensive against the Germans in which the Western Allies were victorious. Winston Churchill famously summed up the battle on 10 November 1942 with the words, "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."[101] It was Montgomery's greatest triumph; he took the title "Viscount Montgomery of Alamein" when he was raised to the peerage after the war.


Aftermath


Rommel chased west of Sirte




Area of Western Desert Campaign 1941/2


British Matilda tanks advance towards Tobruk after El-Alamein
Once again, the Axis made a fighting withdrawal to El Agheila. Twice before, in early 1941 and early 1942, Allied forces had advanced to El Agheila but no further. On the first occasion, Wavell's offensive in 1940 had failed when with his lines of supply overstretched, political decisions intervened to withdraw troops to fight in Greece and East Africa while his opponents were reinforced with the Afrika Korps. In 1941, Auchinleck and Ritchie's forces once again reached El Agheila with ragged supply lines and exhausted formations and were pushed back. This time, however, it was Rommel's troops which found themselves fought out and with few replacements while prior to the battle Montgomery had focused his planners intensely on the question of how to create supply lines to provide the Eighth Army with the 2,400 t (2,600 short tons) of supply it needed each day.
Huge quantities of engineering materials and equipment had been collected to repair the destroyed transport infrastructure. This was so successful that the railway line between El Alamein and Fort Capuzzo, despite having been blown up in over 200 separate places, was quickly put into commission and in the month after Eighth Army reached Capuzzo carried 133,000 short tons (121,000 t) of supplies. The port of Benghasi was handling 3,000 short tons (2,700 t) a day by the end of December when it had been thought that, after two years of almost constant destructive effort, its extreme capacity would be 800 short tons (730 t).
Mindful of Rommel's previous successful counter-strokes from El Agheila, Montgomery paused in front of the Axis line for three weeks to concentrate his strung out forces and prepare an assault.[104] On 11 December, Montgomery launched the 51st Highland Division along the line of the coast road with 7th Armoured Division on their left. On 12 December, 2 New Zealand Division started a deep flanking sweep around Rommel's flank in an attempt to cut the coast road in the rear of his position and so his line of retreat. The Highland Division was severely damaged by skilfully designed defences while 7th Armoured met stiff resistance from the Ariete Combat Group (the remains of the Ariete Armoured Division).
Rommel's army had lost roughly 75,000 men, 1,000 guns and 500 tanks and needed time to re-form so he decided to husband what remained of his weakened forces and withdraw. By 15 December, the New Zealanders had reached the coast road but the firm terrain allowed Rommel to break his forces into smaller units and withdraw off-road through the gaps between the New Zealanders' positions.
Rommel conducted a text-book retreat, destroying all equipment and infrastructure left behind[108] and peppering the land behind him with mines and booby traps to keep the following Eighth Army at arm's length.[109] Eighth Army reached Sirte on 25 December but west of Sirte they were forced to pause once again to consolidate their strung out formations in order to deal with the defensive line Rommel had created at Wadi Zemzem near Buerat 230 mi (370 km) east of Tripoli.[110] Rommel, concerned that his army would be completely enveloped and destroyed if he once again halted to face the Eighth Army, had, with the agreement of Field Marshal Bastico, sent a request to the Italian Comando Supremo in Rome to withdraw all the way to Tunisia where the terrain would better suit a defensive action and where he could link with the Axis army forming there in response to the Operation Torch landings. However, Mussolini's reply on 19 December was that the Panzerarmee must resist to the last man at Buerat.




Memorial to the Australian 9th Division at the El Alamein Cemetery


Tripoli falls to Eighth Army
On 15 January 1943, General Montgomery launched the 51st (Highland) Division against Rommel's defences while sending 2nd New Zealand Division and 7th Armoured Divisions around the inland flank of the Axis line. Weakened by the withdrawal of 21st Panzerdivision to Tunisia to strengthen von Arnim's Fifth Panzerarmee, once again Rommel was forced to conduct a fighting retreat. Tripoli, some 150 mi (240 km) further on, with its major port facilities, was taken on 23 January as Rommel continued to withdraw to the French-built southern defenses of Tunisia, the Mareth Line.


Rommel links with von Arnim in Tunisia


Rommel was by this time in contact with von Arnim's Fifth Panzerarmee which had been fighting the Tunisia Campaign against the multi-national British First Army in northern Tunisia since shortly after Operation Torch the previous autumn. Hitler was determined to retain hold of Tunisia and Rommel finally started to receive replacement men and materials. The Axis now faced a war in Africa on two fronts with Eighth Army approaching from the east and the British, French and Americans of First Army from the west. Rommel's German-Italian Panzer Army was re-designated Italian First Army under General Giovanni Messe while Rommel assumed command of the new Army Group Africa, responsible for both fronts.


18th Army Group formed under Alexander
Similarly, the two Allied armies were placed under 18th Army Group with Harold Alexander in command. However, the hope of an early conclusion to the campaign against the Axis forces was thwarted at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in the second half of February when Rommel struck a costly blow against the inexperienced U.S. II Corps and destroyed their ability to make an early thrust east to the coast to cut off the Italian First Army's line of supply from Tunis and isolate it from von Arnim's forces in the north.


Significance


El Alamein was a significant Allied victory and the most decisive in Africa with respect to closing of a war front, although Rommel did not lose hope until the end of the Tunisia Campaign. After three years the African theatre was cleared of Axis forces and the Allies could look northward to the Mediterranean.