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First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein was a desparate attempt at the end of June 1942 by the Allied Eighth Army to stop the eastwards advance of Rommel's Panzerkorps towards Cairo and the Suez Canal following the rout at Torbruk.
After a hasty withdrawal from Mersa Matruh the Allied Eighth Army retreated to pre-prepared defences at El Alamein. Alamein itself was a minor railway station on the coast 45 miles west of Alexandria. Ten miles to the south lay the Ruweisat Ridge which gave excellent observation over the surrounding desert. Twenty miles further south was the impassable Qattara Depression. The defence line stretched between the sea and the Depression, which meant that Rommel could outflank it only by taking a significant detour into the Sahara Desert. The importance of this position had been recognised by the British Army even before the war and the Eighth Army had already begun construction of several "boxes", comprising dug-outs surrounded by minefields and barbed wire, along the defence line. The retreating troops now set about digging in along this line to stop Rommel's advance.
On 30 June Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika approached the Alamein position. Rommel believed that, if he struck quickly before Eighth Army had time to settle, his momentum would take him past Alamein and right up to the Nile. However his forces were exhausted and understrength; the Panzer divisions had advanced far ahead of the supporting infantry and Italian motorised divisions, and the supply lines were severely stretched. German air support was seriously inadequate against the constant attack by the RAF on supply convoys and the foremost divisions were short of all kinds of munitions, fuel and provisions.
Until now Rommel had also had the benefit of US reports from Egypt of British military operations which were being intercepted by German intelligence. He had been well informed of British strengths, positions, losses, reinforcements, supply situation and plans. But on 29th June the US diplomats switched the 'Black Code' cipher and suddenly the Germans found they no longer had access to this vital information. Rommel believed Alamein was only lightly defended and that the bulk of the Eighth Army was in retreat to Alexandria.
His plan at Alamein was to divide his forces, with the 90th Light Division passing between Alamein and the sea to cut the Coast Road, whilst the Afrika Korps made an inland cross-country dash toward the Nile. His first attempt to drive through Alamein on the 30th June 1942 failed and there followed a long series of battles along the Allied defence line until hostilities came to a standstill at the end of the August from exhaustion and shortage of supplies.
28th June 1942 Move to North Africa
29th June 1942 Move planned
30th June 1942 Move
30th Jun 1942 Difficult Times
1st July 1942 Hard Fighting
1st July 1942 Blenheims transferred
2nd July 1942 Afrika Korps repelled
2nd July 1942 Secret records destroyed
3rd July 1942 Italian reinforcements
3rd July 1942 Blenheims dismantled
4th July 1942 Bombing ops
5th July 1942 Standstill
5th July 1942 Railway bombed
6th July 1942 Ops
7th July 1942 Tobruk bombed
10th July 1942 Attack Launched
11th July 1942 Australian attack
12th July 1942 Counter attack fails
13th July 1942 South Africans stand firm
14th July 1942 Assault on Ruweisat Ridge
17th July 1942 Four Hurricanes shot down
20th Jul 1942 Change of Command
20th of July 1942 Reorganisation
21st Jul 1942 On the Move
21st July 1942 Tank attack destroyed
21st of July 1942 Move Forward
22nd Jul 1942 In Support
22nd of July 1942 Appendix A
23rd Jul 1942 In Action
23rd of July 1942 Post battle
24th Jul 1942 Maintenance
24th July 1942 Died of injuries
25th Jul 1942 Intelligence
26th Jul 1942 Orders
26th Jul 1942 Orders
27th Jul 1942 In Action
27th Jul 1942 In Action
27th July 1942 Failed attack
28th Jul 1942 In Position
29th Jul 1942 Quiet
29th Jul 1942 Intelligence
31st Jul 1942 On the Move
31st July 1942 Stalemate
3rd Aug 1942 On the Move
4th Aug 1942 Sniping
11th Aug 1942 Positions Improved
12th Aug 1942 Positions Improved
30th August 1942 A week of battle
31st Aug 1942 Enemy Advance
1st Sep 1942 In Action
1st Sep 1942 In Position
2nd Sep 1942 In Action
3rd Sep 1942 In Action
5th Sep 1942 In Action
6th Sep 1942 Enemy Hold
7th Sep 1942 Precaution
8th Sep 1942 Reliefs
20th of October 1942 152nd Brigade Operational Order
20th of October 1942 Gapping and Taping
21st of October 1942 Operation Order No.1
21st of October 1942 152nd Brigade Administrative Order No.1.
22nd of October 1942 Notes on 152 Brigade O.O. No 1. dated 20 Oct 42
22nd of October 1942 Vehicles
23rd Oct 1942 Orders
23rd Oct 1942 In Action
23rd Oct 1942 Led by the Pipers
23rd of October 1942 Patrols
23rd of October 1942 Operational Order No. 1.
24th Oct 1942 In Action
24th of October 1942 Advance
25th of October 1942 In Position
26th of October 1942 In Action
27th of October 1942 Situation Obscure
27th of October 1942 152nd Brigade Operation Order
28th of October 1942 In Action
29th of October 1942 In Action
30th of October 1942 Relief
1st Nov 1942 In Action
1st of November 1942 Operational Order No. 2
2nd Nov 1942 In Action
3rd Nov 1942 In Action
4th Nov 1942 Out of Action
4th Nov 1942 Advance
4th Nov 1942 Mopping up
5th of November 1942 Report
6th Nov 1942 Into Harbour
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Those known to have fought in First Battle of El Alamein during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Want to know more about First Battle of El Alamein? There are:87 items tagged First Battle of El Alamein available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte. Horace Bailey Cotton 57th LAA Regiment Royal Artillery Horace Cotton served as a dispatch rider from 1933 to 1945. He was at El Alamein and in Italy and Greece, he lived to be 93.
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Dvr. John Edward Potter 4th Field Squadron Royal Engineers  Jack Potter joined up in July 1940, after the fall of France.
He was sent to Egypt, completing his basic training while on board ship.
He was posted to the 4th Field Squadron, Royal Engineers.
Jack served against the Italians in the Western Desert in 1940, then Rommel and the Afrika Korps.
He was then detached to the Australians and sent to Greece, in 1941. The evacuation from Greece saw him twice sunk in Piraeus harbour aboard Navy ships, before escaping on a liner commandeered by the Australian Army in Alexandria. Back to the desert war, and the battle of El Alamein, the capture of Tunis, and the surrender of the Afrika Korps in 1943.
Next was the invasion of Sicily, followed by the invasion of Italy, and the slow pushing back of the Germans to Monte Cassino. After taking part in the opening stages of this battle, his unit was transferred back to the UK for a refit prior to D-Day.
He saw action on D-Day, in the battles for Normandy, the invasion of Holland, Arnhem, and finally the invasion of Germany, before de-mob in Feb 1946.
Not one home leave during his entire service!
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Cpl. Daniel Peter O'Connell 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry From receiving my granddad, Daniel O'Connell's military record from the MOD, we have found out that he served from the age of 17, joining the 13/18th Hussars, and served during WW2 at Dunkirk with BEF and at El Alamein with 1st Derbyshire yeomanry, and Italy with the Royal Armoured Corps.
He was a very gentle man, with a lot of humility and rarely talked about his experiences. We found out from other people that he was very honourable, saved lives at Dunkirk, was blown from a tank, and was the only survivor, and was a PoW only for an Italian to let him go. I can't verify any of this, but I don't know why anyone would lie about it to us.
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Pte. William Robert Burt 2/5th Battalion Essex Regiment William Burt was involved in the First Battle of El Alamein, from 1st to 27th of July 1942. His Battalion was overwhelmed at Deir-El-Shein and he was reported missing on 11th of August 1942, casualty list number 899.
He was a POW in Italy, camp number 51, Villa Serenity (Bari, also listed as Altamura. He was then a POW at Stalag 4f Hartmannsdorf Chemnitz, until the end of the war.
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Gnr. William Arthur Hesketh 31st Field Regiment, 105th Bty. Royal Artillery William Hesketh was my father. As far as I know, he was a dispatch rider and was active from 1942. He first went to El Alamein and then to various other places all across North Africa, Italy, and Greece.
Sadly, he passed away in 1973 when I was 17 months old, and I would love to have had a conversation about his part in these campaigns.
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Pte. Maurice Gosling Cammish A Coy., 25th Btn. 2nd New Zealand Division Maury Cammish was captured in the Battle for El Mreir, just before the main battles for El Alamein, on 22 July 1942. He was transferred via camps in Benghazi (6 weeks), Bari (3 months) and Gruppignano (10 months) before being transferred to Stalag 344 in Nov 1943. He was subsequently transferred to Gorlitz. Dates are soft unfortunately. His written records show that he was held or worked at KDE 732 and at KDE 1. He took part in one strand of the 'Long Marches' throughout Feb-April 1945, eventually meeting up with American troops.
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Pte. Thomas Herbert Lee 1st Btn. Welch Regiment Thomas Lee was taken prisoner by the Germans when Rommel's Afrika Korps overran 1st Battalion, Welch Regiment near Benghasi in 1st Battle of El Alamein, on the 30th of January 1942.
He was handed over to the Italians and eventually arrived at POW Hospital, Caserta, Italy in May 1942, via several transit camps and a sea crossing.
In July 1942 he was transferred to the POW Hospital at Lucca, Campo PG202.
We are not sure if he was a patient or some sort of medical orderly, because his own account suggests he was involved in the development of a library of 18,000 books at Lucca. His length of stay also suggests something more than a period of illness.
In September or October 1943 he was moved to Stalag VIIIb Lamsdorf on the medical train. Early in his stay at Lamsdorf, he was moved to a work camp run by civilians where he was treated reasonably well. From then he did a year as a miner at another work camp at Beuthen, Kommando E72.
On 22nd of January 1945 they were roused and marched out of camp on one of the Long Marches. This covered 900 miles, several countries and several months before they were liberated in Steblowitz (now Steblovice).
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Pte. Patrick J. McGrath 5th Btn. Queens Own Royal Royal West Kent Regiment (d.27th Jul 1942) Patrick McGrath was killed in the battle of El Alamein on the last day, the 27th of July 1942 aged only 19. I believe he lied about his age when enlisting. He is buried in Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo, Egypt.
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