Battle of Alam Halfa

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Part of World War II, North African Campaign

Date	August 30–September 6, 1942
Location	El Alamein, Egypt
Result	Allied strategic victory Axis tactical victory

Combatants

Commanders

Strength

Casualties

1750

2930

Western Desert Campaign
Compass – Sonnenblume – Tobruk – Brevity – Battleaxe – Crusader – Gazala – Bir Hakeim – 1st Alamein – Alam Halfa – Agreement – 2nd Alamein

The Battle of Alam el Halfa took place between August 30 and September 6, 1942 during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The combatants were Panzer Army Africa, commanded by Erwin Rommel ("the Desert Fox") and the British Eighth Army, commanded by Bernard Montgomery.

The specific units involved were, according to Imperial War Museum curator Chris Plant:

The Allied front line in this sector was arranged as follows: (from north to south): 2nd Battalion The Rifle Brigade; 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (60th); a composite regiment of 10th Hussars including a Rifle Brigade Company; the 4th Light Armoured Brigade and 1st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (60th) along with a composite regiment of the 4th / 8th Hussars. These units were backed up by the artillery of the 3rd and 4th Regiments of the Royal Horse Artillery. Opposing them (again from North to South) were the German 90th Light Brigade, the Italian XX Corps, the Deutche Afrika Korps (DAK) formed by the 21st and 15th Panzer Divisions and a combined German and Italian Reconnaissance Group.

In an effort to bypass the British position and cut it off from its base in Egypt, the Axis forces attacked the weaker Southern sector of the British line. Rommel's main offensive force then struck north. Decrypted German Enigma signals gave Montgomery the time and place of the assault, enabling him to put batteries of artillery in position on the Alam el Halfa ridge to destroy the German tanks.

On August 31, Rommel's troops were halted after bitter fighting and heavy losses just to the southwest of Alam el Halfa. Another assault on the ridge on September 1 was repulsed. By now the Axis forces were suffering from supply shortages especially fuel, and on September 2 Rommel ordered a withdrawal by stages. Both sides clashed again on the night of the September 3 when the retreating Germans were attacked by New Zealand units. All the while, the Desert Air Force were adding to Rommel's supply problems by attacking his supply columns.

By September 5 the Axis forces had reached the eastern side of the old British minefields. Sporadic fighting continued on September 6, with the British making small gains against the Germans and on September 7, with a lull in the fighting, both sides regrouped and the battle ended. The Germans had gained about five miles of the southern Alamein front.

The next major clash on the Alamein front was a British attack on October 23, 1942, beginning the Second Battle of El Alamein.