BBC Battlefields 1of4 Alamein

[Music] they called it ash Wednesday throughout Egypt British officials began to destroy sensitive documents as their enemies advanced in Cairo the Egyptian capital the British feared the worst the Germans seemed likely to take the city just as they had already conquered most of Europe in the Pacific the Japanese had gravely weakened British and American power and taken Hong Kong and Singapore in the Atlantic German submarines threatened to starve Britain into submission it was the darkest moment in the Second World War few of the British servicemen were professionals ever since Dunkirk they had had to learn their new trade in the hard school of defeat this series follows their struggle to turn back the tide of disaster through four campaigns on the road to victory starting in the deserts of North Africa [Music] the Germans had come to North Africa the year before to defend their Italian allies in Libya but now their aim was to take Egypt with it the whole of the Middle East and in Rommel the German commander they had sent one of their best generals as the British had discovered - that cost Rommel was a man who exploited every situation he led from the front he was most of the time in front with his shoulders and and we were against a very professional army a very good army and very well-equipped better equipped than we were for the battered British soldiers fighting Rommel in the desert became a struggle against nature as much as the enemy [Music] this is a field of battle like no other the desert is a harsh and waterless place living in it soaks up water traveling through it soaks up petrol and for the inexperienced or unprepared the whole environment soaks up resolve simply surviving here is an effort in itself the ration was two water bottles per day one in the morning one an evening two pints and that had to do for everything it had to do for drinking for washing for washing of clothes everything with no real landmarks finding your way in safety is difficult there's in the wilderness huge in the way he was and of course living conditions oh there is more premises than we'd ever known and you know talk about Boy Scouts camp and it's no comparison of course perhaps the most obvious thing about the desert was to the men who fought here the most peculiar there were no civilians and almost no buildings to get in the way put simply desert fighting was a tactician dream and in Rommel the British were facing a master tactician in 1942 the German commander was hoping to knock Britain right out of the war his plan was to smash through the British army and take Egypt in the Middle East and with it the oil suppliers which kept the British war effort going the British line rested on the coast at Ghazala Rommel swung his mast tanks around the desert flank of the Allied line and pushed in towards the British rear his attack smashed into the disorganized British their tanks was split up in small units and unable to stop the German advance now watch the Germans come off this Ridge and we've been told that the Germans had very little tanks and I thought well I don't know where they've got all the tanks from but somebody's given us wrong information [Music] it was chaos it was chaos I've been I'm being honest about that we suddenly found ourselves surrounded and we were ordered to break out in transport every vehicle for itself the Eighth Army was in retreat we'd really believed and we were made to believe that we had held all the Aces and then it all went wrong and it's very hard then broken British units raced back along the coast to Egypt some of them found themselves overtaken by the advancing Germans and we went through German positions when they realized that what was happening started fine and as a wee gantry crossfire to get out [Music] when we eventually got back there was only enough men to form one company out of two company I must admit we probably felt well this could be the end the headlong British retreat continued for 300 miles deep into Egypt the lack of obstructions in the desert meant that movement along the Mediterranean coast was astonishingly fast because the desert had no value in itself vast areas of it could be given up in order to buy time the front line now was just 60 miles from the Nile back in Cairo the panic began GH school was beginning to muster papers and there were things being destroyed and I mean there were certain amount of preparation for what might happen if we lost of the front [Music] and in the Egyptian bazaars the rumors ran rife many Egyptians were unhappy with British domination and look forward to a German victory the British knew that information was reaching the journals in every alley there might be enemies sympathizers behind each shop front perhaps a spine [Music] as a retreat continued and the situation got worse the commander-in-chief sacked the army commander and took charge himself his name was Claude Auchinleck he was a soldier of huge experience and great tenacity as the battered British and Commonwealth units arrived he ordered them to take up defensive positions near an obscure railway halt called Alamein this would be the last line of defense before the Nile Delta the Alamein position was the strongest natural barrier in the Western Desert so it was impossible to outflank to the north lay the Mediterranean Sea from there the British line stretched south for 30 miles where it rested on another impassable barrier I'm standing right on the edge of the Katara depression which falls away 200 feet below sea level into a sea of shifting sand possible to a few camels but a show stopper for a second world war army if Rommel was going to attack he'd have to break the British line all this was closed to him [Music] in fact the position at Alamein had been known to the British for sometime or connect had had the area fortified in depth well before Rommels offensive to avoid being seen by air patrols the British dug deep and these fortifications were so solid that traces of them still survived [Music] so this is where the broken 8 farm II rallied with some of its units taking up position in concrete emplacements like this I think this one has been some sort of headquarters it's well tucked into the desert and it's littered with rusty oil and petrol cans in front there were deep minefields behind Auchinleck had massed the Army's artillery ready to pour concentrated fire onto the Germans when they attacked with its back against the wall the Eighth Army just held out at Alamein it had not been beaten but it had been shaken some of the soldiers had been fighting here for more than two years and many were exhausted partly it was due to the tough conditions in the desert out here they were precious few home comforts for the troops I can't even remember when we were actually in the line when you have a pop of milk when you'd open a tin of a kind of bully beef of course it's sort of half floated out the can because the heat had melted all the fat that's in the there and used to get these very hard biscuits and after Luis left over from the 19 for deep water under the Flyers around here before you say Jack Robertson you have a brew in fact they couldn't drink here about fly settle amongst ladies of muslin you know and that bad you sort of boil over all through the day and then at night time you couldn't wrap yourself up enough to keep warm the desert sores that was another problem if you knocked yourself which was inevitable on the tank as soon as you knocked yourself at all it became festered within a match of ours and it spread like an ulcer the soldiers began to distrust a high command which seemed unable even to provide them with adequate equipment we knew you see we knew that the tanks we had were not really up to scratch we couldn't match the German tanks and we kept on asking and we couldn't understand that each time we got new tanks they had this silly little peashooters we called it the inevitable result would be that we'd be we'd suffer and we'd lose a lot of people most of all it was failure that demoralized them after months in the desert they'd shown that they were as tough as their enemies but despite that their operations had not been successful it seemed that their generals had let them down and now there were signs that for some of them it was all becoming too much many officers had taken to questioning orders others had been relieved because of exhaustion Commonwealth troops often distrusted British officers infantry was suspicious of Armour brave but baffled was how the Prime Minister Winston Churchill described them and now it was time for him to take a hand the Prime Minister flew to Egypt to see things for himself he wasn't pleased with what he found he urgently needed a victory and Auchinleck was adamant that there could be no offensive until at least September a visit to the front left him even more depressed the next day he acted a new commander-in-chief was appointed he was General Sir Harold Alexander a charming and steady warrior with a reputation for karma efficiency and there was a new commander for the 8th army too leftenant general Bernard Montgomery his task was to destroy the Africa Corps and throw Rommel out of Africa Rommel was still hopeful of a final victory a victory which might even be a war winner far away in Russia the German armies had reached the Caucasus from there they might be able to threaten Persia and Iraq combined with a desert thrust through to Cairo such a move might still give Hitler control over all the oil in the Middle East and not written out of the war but Rommel was a long way from his bases and short of suppliers worse British attacks at sea were interrupting the convoys from Italy if he was going to make a move he knew he had to do it soon [Music] Rommels new opponent swept into his task like a tornado arriving in Egypt two days before he was supposed to take over he took off for the desert almost immediately and began issuing orders I planned an inspection dealing with further with go how to be better a veteran of the Western Front in the first world war Montgomery had a reputation for prickly honest and insubordination but also is a consummate professional dedicated to the art of war our mandate from the Prime Minister is to destroy the Axis forces in North Africa you can be done and it will be done beyond any possibility of doubt nobody had ever seen an army commander in person in a field of conflict and you couldn't help but be inspired yeah we can't stay here live then let us stay here dead I want to impress on everyone that the bad times are over they are finished for the baffled soldiers of the Eighth Army there was now at least some certainty about the future a fortnight after Montgomery took over the British Army Rommel made his move [Music] he gathered his armored forces and punched at the southern end of the British line moving them by night towards a ridge called Alam halfa it was down this track that Rommel moved the hundreds of vehicles of the Africa Corps that nut although the walls of the escarpment on either side prevented the British on the ground from seeing it this huge concentration of armor was desperately vulnerable to air reconnaissance and the RAF spotted it [Music] Montgomerys army was expecting them both military logic and intercepted signals had predicted the attack Monte knew that the battle at alum halfa would be crucial if he lost he was finished and so was the 8th army this was to be a purely defensive but there was to be no world armored charge into the German ranks Montgomery thought that too many tank officers were still cavalry soldiers at heart they hadn't learnt the lessons of armored warfare the senior officers had led cavalry charges because that's the way they did it and we as tank men who had been trained to use ground and hold down positions we were appalled at the tactics of draw cutlasses or sabers and charged and we kept doing this and we kept losing Rommels aim was to smash his way over the alum halfa ridge to emerge behind the bulk of the british army and push on towards cairo the Germans advanced with soft-skinned vehicles as well they had staff cars and people like that reconnaissance sometimes motorcycles as well you see and behind them the body of Tanks which you can identify by the amount of dosh they raise once he knew the direction they were taking Montgomery gave the final orders for the tanks to plug the line [Music] we were told to old our fire till the last minute virtually [Music] suddenly the guns open up and then flames people bailing out machine guns shooting down general panic halt people trying to get away tanks with joy obviously a lost cause what must have been for them like horrific but very pleasing from my point of view it was the first time I had been in a shooting gallery shooting at the target instead of being the target having halted Rommels advance Montgomery called in the power of his artillery and air force [Music] they battered the German columns for days on him eventually Rommel with a Montgomery had his victory and for the troops the victory brought a new confidence in the future perhaps Ronald could be beaten once and for all the fact that that was successful had an enormous effect on us because we felt right this is this is da working for us then there's no reason why we shouldn't do it anywhere else the dominance of the desert air force at Alamo alpha shocked the Germans and it was a promise of things to come slowly the British one command of the air and the big change came when our Spitfires arrived and the first thing we heard was where our little radios we were able to often pick up the German planes and we heard a German voice saying Achtung Spitfire and the Spitfires then arrived and we all cheered each time the Spitfires came over and did their stuff and we were able to walk in the sunlight from then on with Rommels attack halted the British began the build-up for the coming offensive 300 tanks an extra 30,000 men arrived in Egypt [Music] just the sight of all the supplies and reinforcements was exhilarating for the old desert hands at last the things you'd asked for were being delivered and then you saw Sherman tanks was 75 millimeter all round Travers this was another army and the whole desert was covered with vehicles and dongs and them moving up [Music] in two months Montgomery was ready he had 200,000 men and more than a thousand times Rommel had less than half that [Music] along the whole of the 35-mile front for months both sides had been laying anti-tank mines in front of their positions in fields several miles deep today it's still a lethal landscape hundreds of mines left over from the fighting litter the battlefield nearly 60 years on these minefields were an overriding factor in Montgomery's calculations they formed an invisible barrier which vehicles couldn't cross but there was another way if he couldn't send tanks he could send men their weight wouldn't explode the mines appropriately enough he called his plan Lightfoot Montgomery's plan was a complex one involving thousands of men to ensure that everyone knew what part they would play in the coming back he began a program of addressing the troops well he arrived and was really quite a small chap but asked for a thing of something he could stand on and then talk to everybody now my forecast of this battle is that there will be three definite stages that's the break in you knew he was in command you no doubt about it and you didn't tend to drop your gaze he was looking at you or look away someone else you were held by him then the dogfight I believe that the dogfight battle will become a hard killing match and will last for 10 or 12 days he made people believe in that you know this was going to be it and and everything would be planned to the last detail the enemy well click then we'll count the Blake out and that will lead to the end of Rommel in Africa all in all what Montgomery was proposing was essentially a First World War battle like those fought on the Western Front where he himself had learned his trade the infantry would advance into no-man's land well the artillery barrage kept the defenders heads down unlike so many battles in the First World War this one was carefully prepared and slickly coordinated but when it began everything would depend on the power of the British guns Montgomery fixed the date for the 23rd of October all day his soldiers lay concealed in the desert waiting for night when the battle would start although he risked confusion in the dark Montgomery hope to catch his enemy by surprise [Music] it was very dark just before the moon day you could see in the eastern sky line that the oncoming moon beginning to light up a bit but you knew what caused you to house at all that everything was happening you could hear the soft crunch of sand behind you as that was you knew which company that was and where they were going to their location it was a thoughtful period you knew that tonight was going to be the real stuff I don't think anybody would be inhuman if they didn't go through a bit of panic we had a thoughts but our families and our friends and and always a man will think well if it happens to me well it happens to me but at least I hope but when it does I won't be suffering and I've done my bit [Music] it was such an enormous barrage the whole of the eastern skyline behind us was a ripple of light from one end to the other it must be 650 guns they are firing and then the next moment you are hearing the whistling away overhead and then the column away out in front of us on the German lines it must have cured any constipation they had it was the biggest British bombardment since the First World War we didn't hear anything coming back from the enemy of that sort of volume it was spasmodic firing it was the firing of people who have been caught unawares after 20 minutes of the barrage the leading troops in this sector Highlanders of 51st division began to advance slowly in extended line into the minefield their objective was the crest of that low ridge called Metiria on the horizon behind it were access tanks and guns in front of it the enemy infantry with rifles and machine guns bayonets and grenades were dug in in and behind the minefield they walked towards the enemy at a steady march just behind the bow which moved slowly forward in front of them despite the moonlight the dust and smoke obscured almost everything to guide them the artillery fired tracer shells to mark the route and behind them searchlights pierced the sky to create landmarks and these two beams dropped down to be above our heads and across like that to us it was the cross of st. Andrews your other noise that you'd all been listening for the company papers they were there we knew that we had the Highland division going at the bottle when we finally reached the German lines and went looking for Germans and the only ones we found had already got a ham stretched above her head and surrendered from Montgomery's plan to succeed it was vital that clear lanes were marked out through the minefields not just for the tanks but for transport vehicles so that the infantry could bring up ammunition and supplies we must have probably be about halfway across no-man's land before the barrage started and we was out there in no-man's land many years old there very very long each mine had to be identified checked and lifted [Music] the Sun biscotti is to move the leather you just use your hand you just felt your way around it you've been trained out what these mines were like well they felt like in the dark if it was a German teller mind the fuse is on the top and has a plenum attached to a push the pin in give them screw the top off it like my must safe then yes a tense moment but you know you've got to do it because the infantry people are relying on you to give a clear passage for the heavy equipments come through [Music] when the engineer's had finished the tanks move forwards in the narrow lanes the tanks would emerge from the minefields before dawn broke to await the German counter-attack at least that was the plan we started through the minefields got to the Second Life the infantry had missed a lot of anti-tank guns and we came under intention and she tank fire and we lost 31 times and we got orders to cease action discontinued disengaged withdraw all the situation because a good anti-tank gun they will take the first tank out in the last one and you can't get forward you can't get back you can only go into the minefield and risk being blown up you'd probably lose the track once you lose your tracks you'd a sitting target anyway because you can't move at all so you're just hoping it's not you that's gonna be hit it's a terrible feeling as dawn broke on the morning after the attack it was clear that the army had not in fact achieved its objectives Montgomery's gamble had not paid off but now he held his nerve and it was one of those moments in military history when nerve really counted he knew that his force was larger better equipped and had more air support he could afford a battle of attrition and Rommel couldn't he took one of the toughest decisions that a general has to face to accept the loss of men's lives in a tough slogging match to bring about victory the battle would continue after all we managed to do it Alan Hoffa so why of course we could do it here it was only a matter of throwing more people in am afraid it worked in this way that whatever there was a weakness in the enemy defenses the troops will move forward sometimes 100 yards sometimes longer sometimes shorter but edging forward you are crumbling at the defensive - all the time the pressure was on there Rommel had been on sickly he returned to find his deputy dead his army under continuous heavy bombardment with little air as ever he was short of fuel at one point his army had only three days supply of petrol [Music] day after day for 10 long days Montgomery's dog fight went on along the whole of the front the fighting continued under the Desert Sun Indians and Australians British and South Africans picked away at the German and Italian positions taking prisoners here gaining ground there the dogfight led to one of the most heroic actions of the battle on the night of the 27th of October under the by now usual barrage the men of the second Rifle Brigade moved forward bringing with them nineteen anti-tank guns they were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Vic Turner his objective was a place called for want of a better name snipe this is it just a patch of churned up desert on the forward slope of a low ridge they arrived after dark and began to reckon with the surrounding area they had walked into a hornet's nest just north of us about a thousand yards away was a tank Liga of over 30 German tanks my maid attack about 7:00 a.m. sick now we're doing the work without them only have been a annihilate the crews bailed out of the tanks forever them survive they may be shooting now not rabbits now so the shelling during the day and night was out of this world as the riflemen fought on the shells hurtle down deposition several times that day they were bombarded by their own side we got the hell of a time from our own 105 millimeter guns and of all the unpleasant things in a very unpleasant day I think that was the most unpleasant [Music] the Germans attacked the British snipe all day in Wales even penetrating behind the British lines I looked at the realtor I'm the last of my beard it was a German mark free and I said that legs of course at blows a German tank there Christ he's seen us now you know we read it now and the next thing I heard was his explosion then I smell burning rubber Norinco I look back at this take them in knocked out by the end of the day Turner's 19 guns had destroyed perhaps 50 armored vehicles Turner himself received the Victoria Cross and many of his men were also decorated the real value of the snipe fighting lay in its contribution to the wearing down of Rommels armor he had 77 serviceable tanks left Montgomery had 900 it was time for the break heart again the British guns roared out in the darkness again the infantry set off across the desert spraying enemy positions with small arms fire lobbing grenades into their trenches but this time the going was easier after while the German had started retreating because what you've got understand is that those Germans have been a terrific bombardment and their nose must have been in a turbo state I mean did one varmint that was laid down to support us was tremendous we couldn't do nothing wrong not with that sort of support and we carried on for four miles right until we got to our objective the 10-day dogfight had paid off now it was time for the armored assault that Montgomery's army had worked so hard for [Music] we got through the minefields broke into the open ground and then from my point of view it was purely the question going forward and attacking this was going to be tank warfare as we done before and we were we had a lot better tanks we had the Aces for long the battle raged then it was just a personal thing you lost sight of what was happening who's just you fighting whatever was there the access troops began to pull back despite a message from Hitler saying that there would be no retreat Rommels forces were decimated [Music] I was still a bit skeptical because I'd fought Rommel for a long time and there were times before when we thought we defeated him but when when I saw the devastation and the knocked out tanks and some of the most modern supercharged Mark fours with the 75 millimeter gun on destroyed and the anti-tank guns and the dead and the prisoners columns of prisoners I thought no I can't see these going to recover this was what everyone had been waiting for Montgomery moved his army forward across the desert as fast as was safe in pursuit of his fleeing enemies the pursuit took the army back along the Mediterranean coast over all the battlefields of the past two years and on towards the capital of Italian Africa Tripoli as they pushed on they had some dramatic news at the other end of the Mediterranean a huge British and American fleet had appeared off the coast of the French colonies of Morocco and Algeria they were to land another army in Rommels rear there was now no hope for the africa port and so three months to the day after the Battle of Alamein began British and Commonwealth forces entered Tripoli they had achieved the aim they had set themselves so long ago the success brought a new spirit to the 8th army [Music] [Applause] there have been a tremendous buildup of pride in the army the AIDS army title that came to be known as something that you wanted to be in it had risen from almost obscurity into this newborn army so it meant a lot to people [Music] today the desert is almost as empty as it was before the fighting the Train still chugs up the railway line twice a day there's more irrigation and a few more people but it's very hard to imagine that nearly 60 years ago there were hundreds of thousands of men and machines packed into this little corner of the desert on that October night nevertheless here they were sweating in the heat and cursing the Flyers despite grievous losses the brave but baffled men of eight Thommy had one of famous triumphs this great cities an army of brickies and barristers teachers and taxi drivers had come of age as Churchill put it before Alamein there were almost no victories after it there were no defeats small wonder that bells peeled out across Britain at the news halation somehow the signals had got armed to the London radio em and we had this amazing sound coming all that distance from London into the desert [Music] of the men who made up John McGregor's battalion of the Black Watch almost 1/3 became casualties at Alamein you all know if you're a soldier your life's on the line but when you take stock it was a heavy toll for one unit it became a very personal thing and I bringing down to earth of elation halation of the cost [Music]

Channel: 993ti

Views: 223,429

Rating: 4.7707229 out of 5

Keywords: ww2, world war 2, el alamein, montgomery, rommel

Id: qJL7Ny2VXM0

Length: 48min 47sec (2927 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2013