First Battle of El Alamein (World War II) war movies

First Battle of El Alamein 1 July 1942

After defeat in Battle of Gazala, in which Allied have lost 50,000 men and over 1,000 tanks, British Eight Army had to retreat towards Egypt and prepare for German offensive. Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, realized how important time is in this operation and straight away pushed towards Alexandria. British prepared their defence line near El Alamein and next day Rommel arrived with his Afrika Korps and their Italian allies.

Even though his forces were exhausted, and he had only less than 100 tanks available, Rommel was convinced the best options is to attack straight away. Italian forces were suppose to attack from the west on the defence line, while he will flank them and thus trap the defenders. He did not realize that British have reinforced their defence and they had superiority in every kind of weapons. The night attack was chaotic and during the day Germans had to face heavy air attacks. After four days of fights and manoeuvrers, losing over 10,000 men and most of the tanks Rommel gave up - his forces were too exhausted to go on and they needed to resupply. He stopped the offensive and begun to prepare his own line of defence.

Panzerkampfwagen II

Matilda tank

Panzerkampfwagen III

M3 Lee

Panzerjaeger I

Fiat M11-39

Fiat M13-40