The+Battle+of+El+Alamein

The Germans were doing exceptionally well in Europe. They had pushed out the British and conquered the French, once considered the best army in all of Europe. They had also beaten the combined force of the British and the Greeks in the Battle of Greece, which was explained a bit before. The Italians on the other hand, were being beaten in every theater they took part in They were beaten in Greece and needed the Germans to save them. Then, they were being beaten back in the North African theater. Once again, the Germans were forced to save them. In the nick of time, the Afrka Corps arrived in the deserts of Africa and halted the British offensive. Then, against the Orders of the High Command, Rommel, also known as the "Desert Fox", advanced through the British lines, surprising them greatly. It was this element of surprise and the training that all men of the German army went through that helped Rommel penetrate the British lines. With a limited amount of air support, Rommel drove across the desert with his limited number of troops and even took the heavily fortified city of Tobruk. However, as Rommel won battle after battle, his supply lines were also stretched, and the British shortened. Thus, Rommel'sd offensive slowed up as he slowly advanced into Egypt. Meanwhile, the British were stockpiling supplies for a major counter offensive. Having Field Marshal Wavell replaced with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the process of a counteroffensive was sped up even more. The planned offensive was set for a tiny town called El Alamein. This was a an area which was heavily contested between the British and German factions. The Germans and the Italians had set up a heavily fortified line that was supposed to keep out the coming British offensive. With a huge artillery bombardment, the British advanced on the German lines. However, since the British did not distribute their artillery bombardment evenly across the front, Rommel could easily distinguish where the major British strike would be. Montgomery's plan went like this: he would carve two paths for his armor to move through in the north. Then, he expected the Germans to commit their armor to stop this breach. Montgomery expected that his superiority in the number of tanks and the quality of the tanks themselves would be able to defeat the measly 550 tanks of the German and Italians combined. Expecting a short, twelve day battle, Montgomery made preparations for a secondary strike if the Germans did in fact manage to close the gaps. The result: The British won a decisive victory over the combined German and Italian forces, which was key to the Allies' later success in the desert, for now, Rommel was forced into a fighting retreat and did not receive enough supply to mount a real decisive counterattack.