{"id":28359,"date":"2012-07-01T08:41:47","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T13:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=28359"},"modified":"2012-07-04T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T03:00:14","slug":"ash-wednesday-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=28359","title":{"rendered":"Ash Wednesday & Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a tiny desert coastal town, notable only for its modest railway and relative proximity (a scant 66 miles) to Alexandria. \u00a0Even today, El Alamein is small, home to only 7,400 people total. \u00a0But on July 1st, 1942, the town whose name in Arabic stands for “two flags” saw 250,000 men under various national flags collide in one of the most important battles of World War II.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

For nearly a year-and-a-half, the war in North Africa seemed stuck on a bloody Mobius strip. \u00a0With infrastructure at a bare minimum and lines of supply stretching from Axis Tripoli in the West and British Alexandria in the East, the battles in the desert took on a repetitive nature. \u00a0One side would score a crushing victory, over-extend their ability to be resupplied or reinforced, and the other side would counter-attack until they too had simply exhausted their gas, ammo and food. \u00a0Heat, time and distance gave the desert tremendous power over armies. \u00a0The sands of Libya and Egypt soaked up fuel and blood in massive qualities, bits of which are still being discovered today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel: The Desert Fox befuddled Britain for 1 1\/2 years in Libya. At El Alamein, his signature strategy of outflanking proved impossible<\/p><\/div>\n

Few mastered the limitations of the desert better than German General Erwin Rommel. \u00a0Rommel had arrived in Libya on the heels of an impressive rout of the Italian 10th Army. \u00a0Using small amounts of armor striking quickly through the vast desert interior, 36,000 British soldiers under Gen. Richard O’Connor managed to outflank and capture 130,000 Italian troops plus much of Cyrenaica (eastern Libya) including the key port of Tobruk.<\/p>\n

Rommel didn’t need to emulate O’Connor, having been one of the pioneers of rapid, outflanking armor as part of the German strategy of blitzkrieg<\/em> (lightning war). \u00a0Rommel’s own 7th Panzer had developed the nickname “Ghost Division” in France since even the German High Command often had no idea where Rommel was or where he was heading. \u00a0Arrogant, egotistical, and unwilling to follow orders he personally disagreed with (Rommel disobeyed orders for him to kill enemy prisoners, civilians and Jews), Rommel was also a tactical genius. \u00a0Protected by his successes and friendship with Joseph Goebbels, “The Desert Fox” was given a free hand in North Africa.<\/p>\n

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Claude Auchinleck: Halted Rommel twice and was the victor of El Alamein. His reward? Replaced and largely forgotten by history<\/p><\/div>\n

The British were less graced with military leadership in North Africa. \u00a0A revolving door of generals came and left Cairo, each seemingly unable to master the\u00a0Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee <\/em>for more than a few fleeting moments. \u00a0It didn’t have to have been this way. \u00a0If not for large portions of the British Army in Egypt being recalled to fight in Greece, Richard O’Connor’s victory over Italian Libya might have been complete. \u00a0Instead, despite a numerical advantage over the Afrika Korps in both men (150,000 versus 96,000) and tanks (179 to 70), by the end of June of 1942, the British had retreated to Mersa Matruh – 100 miles inside Egypt and the furthest retreat thus far in the campaign. \u00a0The British commanding general was relieved again (this time it was Lt. Gen. Neil Ritchie, for those who cared) and in a desperate move, the Commander-in-Chief of Middle East Command, Claude Auchinleck, personally took over operations.<\/p>\n

Auchinleck, nicknamed “The Auk” by his men, had taken over command before. \u00a0The C-in-C of the Middle Eastern Front since the summer of 1941, Auchinleck had relieved Sir Alan Cunningham in November of ’41, saving the British Army from defeat. \u00a0But Auchinleck either couldn’t delegate authority well or had poor resources to draw from (maybe both) and now found himself having direct control over the British 8th Army. \u00a0His first decision sent panic across Egypt.<\/p>\n

“The Auk” knew\u00a0Mersa Matruh was not defensible – at least not with the 8th Army in the condition it was in. \u00a0To the south was yet another giant open flank of desert, the kind that Rommel had used again and again to defeat British forces. \u00a0Lacking natural defenses and perhaps not trusting that his tank commanders could match Rommel’s in open battle, Auchinleck made the risky decision to retreat to the railway junction of El Alamein.<\/p>\n

What followed would be known as “Ash Wednesday.” \u00a0British Command in Cairo assumed Rommel would be in the heart of the Nile valley in days and began frantically burning anything of military value. \u00a0With Alexandria only 66 miles away from the front, Auchinleck made contingency plans to construct bunkers east of the city and flood the Nile to slow the enemy advance. \u00a0Even the Axis believed the fall of British Egypt could arrive at any minute. \u00a0Benito Mussolini, wishing to create his own “Hitler at the Eiffel Tower” moment, flew to Libya and anxiously awaited his victorious march into Cairo.<\/p>\n

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Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee: the majority of the Afrika Korps was, in fact, Italian<\/p><\/div>\n

Auchinleck may have been making back-up plans, but he knew what he was doing. \u00a0El Alamein was an unknown dot on a dusty map in Cairo, but in military terms was a modern Thermopylae. \u00a0Hedged by the Ruweisat Ridge and the\u00a0Qattara Depression to the south, Rommel would have to go through the Sahara itself to outflank the 8th Army – a distance and environment too far and too harsh to overcome. \u00a0Rommel would have to mount a frontal assault on a relatively small front of 20\/30 miles. \u00a0The British had foreseen the potential of this area even before the war, building pill boxes and mine-fields in the open terrain. \u00a0Rommel would fight a numerically superior force in a brutal, head-to-head battle. \u00a0There would be no flanks to turn this time.<\/p>\n

The First Battle of El Alamein didn’t start well either for the Axis on July 1st. \u00a0The 90th Light Infantry Division, whose mission was to clear the coastal road, wandered off and found themselves pinned against a South African division. \u00a0The main lines of attack, led (as always) by Panzer divisions, spent most of the first day under air assault by both British planes and desert storms. \u00a0By the time they made their target destination of\u00a0Deir el Abyad, the 18th Indian Infantry Brigade had already hunkered down with their 25-pound, heavy artillery guns. \u00a0Fierce fighting into the night gave the Afrika Korps<\/em> the ground but at a high price – only 37 tanks remained.<\/p>\n

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The 8.8cm FlaK gun: the German transformation of an anti-aircraft weapon into an anti-tank gun was key in the early North African Axis successes<\/p><\/div>\n

While the next two days were a mix of battles without a clear front line, the coastal road necessary for the Axis advance remained in British hands. \u00a0Sensing that the offensive was stalling, Rommel pulled back armored units from the desert in an attempt to shore up the 90th Light Infantry’s hard fighting. \u00a0It had no effect.<\/p>\n

Auchinleck too had a sense of the direction of the fight and sent the New Zealand 2nd Division along with the Indian 5th to outflank and surround the German 90th Light Infantry. \u00a0They ran head-long into the Italian\u00a0Ariete\u00a0<\/em>Armored Division. \u00a0The Italians foiled the effort to surround the 90th Light Infantry, but at a cost – only 5 of their tanks remained. \u00a0By July 3rd, the entire Afrika Korps<\/em> had at best 26 tanks left. \u00a0The dream of bathing in the Nile was dead – for now.<\/p>\n

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The View at the Time: El Alamein was viewed, at best, as a bloody stalemate. Few understood that Rommel had reached the end of his supply line. The Nile was no longer a goal but the state of mind of the Afrika Korps<\/p><\/div>\n

In truth, both sides were exhausted. \u00a0The British had been on the run for weeks and the Axis had few offensive options left. \u00a0The tank and infantry battles ceased. \u00a0The battle of supplies started.<\/p>\n

Rommel had been receiving 34,000 short tons of supplies a month back in May of 1942. \u00a0With naval patrols hitting Italian shipping and British bombers attacking his supply lines, Rommel’s troops were down to 5,000 short tons by the end of June. \u00a0Vehicles too were in short supply. \u00a04,000 had made it to Libya and the front in May. \u00a0400 made it in June. \u00a0In contrast, not only were the British getting new supplies every day, but within a week, two new Indian Brigades and a new Australian Division were now at El Alamein.<\/p>\n

Renewed fighting on July 8th reflected the imbalance. \u00a0Depleted Panzer groups mostly counter-attacked, trying to stop Australian units from overrunning the center of the line. \u00a0Despite heavy Australian tank losses (as much as 50%), within a week of fighting, the Germans had suffered nearly 6,000\u00a0casualties and lost\u00a0Signals Intercept Company 621. \u00a0The company, a forward unit charged with picking up British radio signals and other intelligence, had been Rommel’s strategic ace-in-the-hole. \u00a0By the middle of July, Rommel had lost most of his tanks and now his ears and eyes on the front.<\/p>\n

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"Manc\u00f2 la fortuna, non il valore" (A failure of fortune, not of valour). A Italian marker at the site of the furthest advance of the Axis armies in Egypt<\/p><\/div>\n

The tide had turned. \u00a0But now the coastal road was no longer blocking an Axis advance but a British one as\u00a0Auchinleck was determined to destroy Rommel once and for all. \u00a0In late July, having now twice tried to push the Axis out of the El Alamein region, Auchinleck launched a furious armored assault with Operation Manhood. \u00a0Not only were the Germans expecting the offensive, but not for the first time, British forces got lost in the desert. \u00a0Anti-tank defenders got separated from their tank units, some brigades stumbled into mine-fields, and in general communication was poor. \u00a0Even with having told Berlin that “the situation is critical in the extreme”, Rommel was able to counter the attack, causing 1,000 British and Australian\u00a0casualties for no gain. \u00a0Rommel would not be in Cairo but nor would Auchinleck be in Tripoli anytime soon.<\/p>\n

But how had the British been unable to defeat Rommel even after his forces had suffered terrible losses? \u00a0Largely it was about coordination. \u00a0British units simply hadn’t been trained well enough for joint aerial, infantry and armored action. \u00a0But the terrain too hurt the British once the tables had been turned. \u00a0Like\u00a0Thermopylae, the battles were contained on narrow ground and the defenders had plenty of time to prepare. \u00a0El Alamein’s natural defenses bled the fight out of the Axis and returned the favor to the British.<\/p>\n

\"The

The cost of battle: at least 23,000 British & German troops were killed or wounded at El Alamein. Italian deaths are unknown but considerable<\/p><\/div>\n

The significance of the First Battle of El Alamein was lost to the British Command in London. \u00a0Claude Auchinleck might have stopped Rommel and saved the critical shipping artery of the Suez Canal, but he had done so at a frightening loss of men and material against a smaller force. \u00a0Nevermind that thus far Auchinleck had been the only commander of any nation to beat Rommel, “The Auk” was seen as a command liability. \u00a0Auchinleck was offered a revised C-in-C command for Persia and Iraq (the Middle Eastern Command was now split in two, with Egypt and Libya a separate office) but turned it down. \u00a0He would resurface by 1943 in India in a similar role and was credited, in part, in changing British fortunes in the Indian\/Burmese theater of operations.<\/p>\n

To replace Auchinleck, British Command chose Gen. William Gott – a corps commander with excellent tank skills. \u00a0But Gott never took command. \u00a0On route, his plane was attacked and Gott was killed instantly by a Messerschmitt round through the heart. \u00a0Instead, a Home Defence Lt. General by the name of Bernard Montgomery was named the new C-in-C of the Middle Eastern Front.<\/p>\n

Montgomery would get his own chance at Rommel at El Alamein that fall and the end result would be quite different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a tiny desert coastal town, notable only for its modest railway and relative proximity (a scant 66 miles) to Alexandria. \u00a0Even today, El Alamein is small, home to only 7,400 people total. \u00a0But on July 1st, 1942, the town whose name in Arabic stands for “two flags” saw 250,000 men under various national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-ringer","category-ww2-fact-and-myth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28359"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28795,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28359\/revisions\/28795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}