Egypt's geographical location made it strategically vital during World War II. Its territory served as a crucial battlefield, and the Suez Canal was a key asset for the Allied forces.
Map of North Africa during WWII
The Significance of El Alamein
El Alamein is a small Egyptian town located on the Mediterranean coast, west of Alexandria. It became famous during World War II as the site of a crucial battle in late 1942.
Strategic Location
The town’s strategic location, bordered by the Qattara Depression to the south, made it a key military stronghold. El Alamein's unique geography, with the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the impassable Qattara Depression to the south, created a narrow 40-mile corridor.
Geography rarely shapes the destiny of nations with such precision as it did at El Alamein Egypt. El Alamein’s terrain formed a perfect natural defense: a narrow corridor between the Mediterranean Sea and the deep, impassable Qattara Depression. General Auchinleck wisely positioned the 8th Army there after retreating from Mersa Matruh. El Alamein’s geography neutralized Rommel’s usual flanking tactics.
Read also: Egyptian Adventure
The narrow bottleneck and the impassable Qattara Depression, with its salt lakes, cliffs, and soft "fech fech" sand, made maneuvering impossible.
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein
During the Second Battle of El Alamein, the British Eighth Army, with 195,000 troops, defeated Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika, which had 116,000 soldiers. This victory marked a turning point in the Western Desert Campaign.
El Alamein held massive strategic importance because victory there would give the Axis access to the Suez Canal and Middle Eastern oil fields-both vital to the Allied war effort. Controlling the canal would cut shipping routes and threaten global energy supplies.
Summer 1942 brought the North African campaign to a knife's edge. The "Desert Fox" rode high on victory's wings following his triumph at Gazala in June 1942. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel drove his forces relentlessly eastward, pursuing retreating British troops across Libya's vastness into Egypt itself. Tobruk fell on June 21, bringing Rommel his field marshal's baton and crucial supplies for his war-weary army.
Read also: Learn Arabic in Egypt: Guide
On June 25, General Auchinleck took command of the Eighth Army and quickly recognized El Alamein's terrain as ideal for defense. He built the "El Alamein Box"-a strong line of mines and fortifications. When Rommel attacked on July 1, a surprise sandstorm and unexpected Indian troops disrupted the Axis plan. What followed was a grinding month-long duel from July 1-27. Attack met counterattack in the scorching desert heat, yet neither combatant could deliver the decisive blow. The British commander launched his own strikes at Tel el Eisa and Ruweisat Ridge.
Though these operations captured limited ground, they achieved something far more valuable: preventing Axis forces from regrouping for another major offensive. This apparent stalemate masked a profound strategic victory for the Allies. For the first time since his arrival in North Africa, Rommel had been stopped cold.
August 1942 brought a new commander to the Eighth Army, and with him, an entirely different approach to desert warfare. Instead of attacking immediately, he carefully prepared and launched Operation Bertram-a clever deception plan. Montgomery meticulously prepared his forces and implemented elaborate deception tactics, including creating dummy supply dumps and disguising tanks as trucks.
On October 23, 1942, the Allies launched Operation Lightfoot with a massive artillery barrage, followed by infantry clearing minefields for tanks. However, Rommel's deep minefields slowed progress. Montgomery's slow, grinding strategy-called "crumbling"-wore down Axis forces. On November 2, Rommel admitted defeat and began retreating, despite Hitler’s late order to "stand and die." With fuel and ammo shortages, the Germans withdrew by November 4, leaving many Italian troops behind.
The battle caused heavy losses: about 13,500 Allied casualties and 30,000 Axis prisoners, along with 1,000 destroyed guns and 400 tanks. Between 30,000 and 50,000 Axis soldiers were captured at El Alamein.
Read also: Clothing in Ancient Egypt
El Alamein became the first clear Allied victory in the war, leading Churchill to say, "Before Alamein we never had a victory." Churchill called El Alamein "the end of the beginning," marking a big turning point for Britain after many defeats. Church bells rang for the first time since 1940, celebrating the victory. The battle was shown in the award-winning film Desert Victory, made by brave cameramen who faced danger filming it. Leaders like Roosevelt and Stalin praised the film.
The Battle of El Alamein was a crucial turning point as it marked the first major Allied victory in the North African campaign.
The Alamein Memorial honors 11,866 Commonwealth soldiers who died in World War II, designed by Hubert Worthington to withstand the desert environment. Unveiled by Viscount Montgomery in 1954, it stands beside the El Alamein War Cemetery, where 7,239 soldiers are buried, including 814 unknown. Decades after the fighting ended, El Alamein still battles hidden dangers from unexploded bombs across 2,680 square kilometers. EU funding supports clearance efforts after reduced Egyptian military aid.
The Suez Canal
The Suez Canal was important mostly to the British. They needed to move large amounts of raw materials to Britain, where their industries were, and move the products to where the fighting was. British power was crucially dependent on sea transport, and there was always a shortage of ships. Britain imported food and raw materials and produced manufactured goods - in wartime, largely weapons and munitions.
For the Germans, taking the Suez Canal would badly damage the British ability to supply armies in the Middle East from the UK. The Germans would also gain a relatively easy route to Iran for oil, which the Germans were always short of.
For the British, holding Suez was only part of the problem. If Italy could be removed from the war, and the German forces in the Mediterranean Sea reduced sufficiently, it would no longer be necessary for supplies to sail round Africa. This was why they wanted the invasions of French North Africa and Italy: to increase the amount of military power they could wield.
Taking the Suez Canal would also have given Germany and Italy the potential for access to the eastern coast of Africa.
The battles in North Africa was a struggle for control of the Suez Canal and access to oil from the Middle East and raw materials from Asia. Oil in particular had become a critical strategic commodity due to the increased mechanization of modern armies.
Battle of El Alamein, a turning point in WWII
Egypt's Political Climate During the War
World War II affected many lives in Egypt. Egypt was a major battlefield in the North African campaign during the Second World War, being the location of the First and Second Battles of El Alamein. The continuing British dominance of Egyptian affairs, including British efforts to exclude Egypt from the governance of Sudan, provoked fierce Egyptian nationalist opposition to the United Kingdom.
Consequently, despite playing host to thousands of British troops following the outbreak of the conflict, as it was treaty-bound to do, Egypt remained formally neutral during the war, only declaring war on the Axis powers in the spring of 1945.
For most of the 19th century, though nominally a self-governing vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty was a virtually independent state, with ever-increasing territorial possessions in East Africa, chiefly Sudan and a political elite class of pashas.
In 1875, facing an economic emergency caused in large measure by his grand modernisation plans, Egypt's Khedive, Isma'il the Magnificent, sold to the British government Egypt's shares in the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez, the company established by Egypt to hold the 99-year lease to manage the Suez Canal. Seen by the United Kingdom as a vital connection to its maritime empire, particularly in India, British control of the Canal was the foundation for British control over Egypt as a whole.
After a nationalist revolt led by officer Ahmed Urabi, Britain invaded under the guise of stability. After the revolt was defeated, Britain became the de facto colonial overlord of Egypt, with Evelyn Baring managing the finances of Egypt.
In 1922, the United Kingdom formally recognised Egypt as an independent state. However, the United Kingdom was able to reserve for itself specific powers in Egypt regarding foreign policy, the deployment of British military personnel in the defense of Egypt and the Suez Canal, and the administration of Sudan. This became a point of contention among Egyptian nationalists who kept negotiating for a more independent Egypt.
Anti-Nazi poster used in Egypt
Politically, Egyptian politics was divided into three main power brokers: the conservative palace, the liberal Wafd Party, and the imperialist British. According to the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, British troops in Egypt were limited to the Suez Canal until 1956 and Alexandria until 1944, except in the case of a war, where instead Britain could increase their troop count. Egypt would also be obligated to materially assist Britain in the case of a war, though Egypt was not obligated to fight for Britain.
By the start of the war, native power in Egypt was split in between King Farouk, and parliament, led by the conservative anti-Wafdist prime minister Ali Maher Pasha. Initially Maher obliged by the treaty; the Egyptian government broke off relations with Germany, confiscated German property, and interned German subjects. However, the government was not willing to declare war on Germany. The war was seen as a European conflict, disconnected from Egypt. King Farouk was keen for Egypt to remain neutral in the conflict, opposing the United Kingdom's continued dominance of Egyptian affairs. After Maher was forced to resign due to British influence, Hassan Sabry was appointed prime minister, leading a coalition of anti-Wafdist parties.
In return, Egypt would cooperate with the British forces, supplying their troops and subsidizing their army with millions of dollars every year. Despite not declaring war, Britain found a compromise, where Britain would be supported by the Egyptian government without direct Egyptian military involvement.
American Involvement
While American forces were not directly involved in the Battle of El Alamein, the United States played a crucial role by supplying the British with tanks, trucks, and artillery.
Key Figures
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Erwin Rommel | German General |
| Bernard Montgomery | British General |
| Winston Churchill | British Prime Minister |
| King Farouk | King of Egypt |
The Legacy of the Battles
The battles' legacy persists through military cemeteries and memorials honoring the fallen, ongoing efforts to clear landmines from the area, and the battle's enduring symbolism in World War II history.
Popular articles:
tags: #Egypt
