El Alamein: Erwin Rommel's Catastrophic Defeat | Line Of Fire

[Music] this is El alamain in Egypt it's an unimpressive Ridge set in a waste of sand gravel and rock a road a railway a tiny settlement and little else it was here that British troops for the first time in World War II showed that they could decisively beat the Germans although victory was achieved only after a Monumental tactical struggle between field Marshall ruml and General Montgomery the significance of this first major Allied Triumph of the war was not lost on Winston Churchill who said before alamain we never had a victory after alamain we never had a defeat [Music] three distant battles at the end of 1942 marked the turn of the second world war the greatest of these at Stalingrad in Russia saw the entrapment and destruction of an entire German army at Al alamain the numbers involved were far smaller and the German force was not destroyed but like the third decisive battle at guad Canal in the Pacific victory was not to be measured by a huge pile of enemy dead El alamain was crucial simply because it was at last a victory something that British forces had hitherto been unable to achieve the overall position of the Allies in 1942 wasn't particularly good the Germans were on something of a role they'd um done extremely extremely well um in defeating France and the low countries in just 6 weeks in 1940 they were up until the middle of 1942 quite successful in their invasion of the Soviet Union and also the Allies had been put back in in North Africa to an extent that they were really worried whether they can actually hold on um to that important part of the um Southern Mediterranean there was still a possibility that the excess Powers could pull off a series of strategic level victories possibly knock the British Empire out of the war not Britain but large parts of the Empire out of the war and quite possibly knock the Soviet Union out of the war between 1940 and 1942 Britain and her Commonwealth poured all the men and War material they could spare into to North Africa for Hitler North Africa was really a sideshow but for Churchill it was a deadly contest pitting The Best of British troops against the enemy North Africa was so important to Churchill and to Britain because of the traditional links with Empire with India as a staging route for aircraft but more importantly because it was the only land theater of war that we had against Germany if they were going to fight their primary enemy at this stage the only place they could do that was in North Africa for the Germans there could be no question of refocusing the strategy in the general direction of Africa uh before a decisive victory of some sort had been achieved in the Soviet but for all the British efforts in North Africa results were disappointing and a wearisome game of long-distance military seesaw [Music] developed the first moves came in December 1940 when a small British Force chased a much larger Italian Army back 500 mil from the Egyptian border to El Aila in February 1941 however German forces arrived and the picture changed commanded by the vigorous and tactically astute Field Marshal o in raml they pushed back the British forces who were weakened by orders to reinforce Greece and CIT back to De [Music] Brook roml was that marvelous Innovative improviser he was a superb trainer and he was a superb commander who led from the front he knew what his army could do had absolute confidence in it must have been a logistician nightmare because he was prepared to take a Gamble [Music] there's no doubt about it that there was this these sort of joking references what a Pity we can't have ronal running seventh armor division we we do quite well and things like that a second British offensive began in November 1941 and after heavy fighting the siege of T Brook was lifted eventually we did manage to get further on the Germans did pull back and in fact we then did extremely well and got right round the Bulge of Libya past Bazi and down to the Gulf of ctid a place called elala and the same nothing really happened again the lines of communication became so extended that and whereas the the the German lines of course contracted so it was easier for them to keep supplied and for the second time Romo counter attacked the Germans swept Eastward capturing to Brook in a couple of days pushing on deep into Egypt an advance of some 800 miles [Music] when the German forces finally Drew breath and paused in July they were utterly exhausted and short of fuel food and water but they were just 80 mi from Alexandria the sez Canal the lifeline of the British Empire now lay within their grasp just 300 Mi further on was the vital oil terminal at hia the threat was obvious and deadly if the German sixth Army in Russia could break through to the Caucasus and Beyond and if RL could advance past Cairo the German pincers would meet in the middle eastern oil fields the major source of Allied fuel furthermore Western India would be threatened just as the Japanese were closing in from the East a German Japanese link up somewhere in the middle east or in India would no doubt have been a dramatic even a cataclysmic event for one thing uh the land Le route through Iran uh would have been cut and India very likely um being cast into Rebellion it was Little Wonder then that in 1942 the British Public's confidence in the direction of the war reached its lowest point perhaps lower even than in 1940 for it seemed that the arrival of two new powerful allies the Soviet Union and the United States had only served to make the overall situation worse Britain was terrified that the Soviet Union would actually collapse in exactly the same way France did so military resources material tanks aircraft guns were diverted to the Soviet Union now 6 months later the Japan's assault on on the United States and the associated attacks on Hong Kong and the British Mala and the the Dutch in in the Dutch East Indies had precisely the same effect the British had to divert resources from the Middle East and so there was a a general weening as as the the Far East actually siphoned off resources to deal with the Japanese these dire long-term threats to the Allies sprang directly from the reverses of the North African Campaign which were harder to Bear because from early 1941 onwards the British greatly outnumbered rl's [Music] forces at The crucial Battle of gazala in December 1941 the British fielded more than 500 tanks roml was able to call on half that number and only half of those were German with little more than a 100 tanks roml destroyed more than 400 British armored vehicles there was also an alarming discrepancy between British and German losses on successive days in December 1941 the 22nd armored Brigade lost 60 tanks while destroying just 14 [Music] there were three main reasons for the British Army's lack of success in Africa during the early years of the war firstly German tanks were Superior in design to their British counterparts secondly the Germans had developed Battlefield tactics that took full advantage of their tanks greater abilities last but not least was the Bold leadership of romal The Desert Fox at the head of a thoroughly professional Army that had inflicted defeat Upon A succession of British generals before for 1942 [Music] [Music] the Germans were very experienced at armed Warfare and therefore very much used their their tanks and their aircraft in close cooperation to try and achieve a result the British were still finding their way they're still trying to find a way of of integrating armor infantry tanks air power and supporting arms and it was very much a learning curve [Music] of course the conditions in which the North African campaign was fought were like no other theater of battle in the Second World War [Music] [Music] it was an ideal a ground for operating armor and vehicles I mean there's no trees no grass no just sand and rubble and it was so hot it was 120 in the shade so if you're a little bit that Way Incline you could go off The Rocker [Laughter] the difficulties with fighting a war in the desert were the fact that you had the heat you had the lack of water and the dust the sand the stones created their own problems because wear and tear on tires on vehicles dust in the weapons and so after a Time men inevitably broke down [Music] the forces on both sides were quite small in number there were four German and Italian divisions who were opposed by between eight and 10 British divisions with a few hundred tanks on each side the forces were small in part because neither side could spare more men for the campaign but mainly because it was more or less the limit each side could Supply with the Mediterranean effectively closed to Allied Shipping British forces had to be convoyed on the long sea Journey around South Africa a trip of 2 to 3 [Applause] months the Germans had a shorter supply line across the Mediterranean from Italy though this was still a journey of some several hundred miles that was vulnerable to Air and attack from Malta km C everything had to be shipped in not only petrol and ammunition but food and water too all the people used to come and get their water and we were Supply by a Palestinian group that brought in Bowsers you know they they brought up thousands of gallons and put them into our support tanks and then we fed the tro the supply difficulties in part explain the North African seesaw pattern of advance and Retreat it was like pulling a rubber band uh the British would Advance as far as Bazi the rubber band which was the supply line would be stretched as far as it could go and then almost by its own valtion pull them back as soon as some German pressure was applied and the reverse happened for the Germans the retreating Army grew stronger as the position of the pursuing forces grew weaker this was the position that faced the Allies in The crucial summer of 1942 and it was the arrival of a British commander to match the tenacity and guile of roml that signaled an upturn in Allied fortunes Montgomery could probably best described as a very excellent trainer of man very stuborn to the point of bloody-mindedness and not easily intimidated Montgomery projected an image it was a very carefully constructed image of a general who was a meticulous planner he was calm he was unfappable and he used to boast about the fact that when when a battle started he would actually turn in and go to sleep because the fighting was was as good as over as soon as Montgomery had instructed his subordinate commanders where ruml was bold however Montgomery was cautious he knew the limitations of his army it was perhaps his great achievement in the war that in North Africa and later in Europe he fought to the strength of his country's brave but limited citizen armies the strengths of eight Army were that it had fought together for a number of years it was made up of very very strong divisions that were loyal to their Commander would follow out the Commander's orders would fight until they dropped um and also had a great deal of of pride in what they were fighting for um they were good veteran professional well-trained troops yet under its first commanders particularly orle it never reached its potential it never had that person that could bind it and make it's something bigger than the sum of its component parts until it got Montgomery Montgomery demonstrated his considerable leadership skills during the first battle he commanded against the Africa Corp at Alam Hala in August 1942 sometimes called the first battle of el alamain when Montgomery took over the eth Army he judged it incapable of offensive operations it needed rest retraining and resupply so he made a virtue of necessity deciding that when roml attacked again the eth Army would stand entirely on the defensive to repel him undoubtedly at the time that Montgomery came out there morale was very poor I mean it's again it's documented that were all sorts of plans people sort of evacuating and all that sort of thing and then Monty came out and more said there will be no retreat nobody move we stand here and fight and if necessary we die this tactic was possible because El alamine was one place where roml could not use his favorite maneuver a long outflanking hook Southward into the desert and then around and behind the British positions rard flanking maneuver was very much in keeping with the tradition of German maneuver Warfare which whenever possible sought to outflank the enemy instead of seeking aeon Clash due to the geography of the North African theater this always meant that it had to be a right hook even so surprisingly enough he achieved some complete and utter surprise on the enemy side with this on a number of occasions all the way up to first El 40 mil south of el alamain lay a great sea of impossible soft sand the qara depression movement across it was impossible rl's hook this time would have to be shorter and therefore easier to defend and in the center of the British [Music] Line Montgomery prepared thoroughly for rl's attack halfway down the British position and running at right angles to it lay the Alam Hala Ridge dense minefields was secretly laid in front of the position and strong British forces were concealed on and beside it roml clearly decided on a quick breakthrough here to be followed by the usual attack on British supplies transport and Communications this time British tanks were dug in into the ridge their Crews under strict orders not to move out and meet the Germans Montgomery knew that such a move would provide roml with the mobile battle at which he excelled and would inevitably lead to the destruction of the British armor the the the life expectancy of tank Crews was pretty poor because our tanks were so inferior to the G tank we never had parity with the German tanks and the other of course the other thing which killed our tanks more than almost anything else was their anti-tank guns they ground guns roml thrust against the south of the British positions employing the cream of his army the 21st and 15th Panza divisions with the 90th light and the Italian breia divisions for infantry support encountering dense minefields and strong resistance along the Alam Halal River Bridge they tried to find a gap between it and the New Zealand division but their repeated attacks met with determined resistance within 3 days roml recognized that he could not break through and began a slow withdrawal by the 7th of September 1942 all fighting in the area had ended after Alam Hala Owen rumel knew that the time window for for reaching the the Nile daughter for for reaching Cairo had gone and and unless there was a major change of policy he was never ever going to get the supplies which would allow him to to to take on British eth Army again basically the the axis forces were now looking at a static situation and the initiative had now passed to the British General Montgomery had signaled his intentions by winning the first round of the fight the defensive battle now he had to to prepare his army for the much more difficult task of attacking the German forces specifically the eth Army had to be transformed in the three areas of weakness that had so far cost it so dear equipment leadership and [Music] tactics new and better equipment was on the way a big convy had just arrived with 300 new American Sherman tanks with the 200 Grant tanks already received from America Montgomery now had a fine force of Tanks armed with 75 mm guns at his [Music] disposal hundreds of the new six pounder anti-tank guns also arrived to replace the inadequate two Pounders also vital to the cause was the Allies ever increasing superiority in air power the Allies begin to launch Air Raids upon German Ground Forces upon their airfields upon their ports and slowly but surely the Germans with fewer resources and less able to resupply themselves and reinforce get ground down the Allies meanwhile they find that by launching these offensives their morale is raised and very importantly the United States Air Force comes to their aid the new men and materials would need time to be trained and become desert worthy but time was one thing that was short discontent was brewing over the general conduct of the war Malta badly needed a relief Convoy which could only sail when Britain controlled the airfields in Libya in addition Operation Torch the secret anglo-american invasion of French North Africa was planned for early November and a British victory in Egypt was needed to persuade French forces to cooperate with The Landings Montgomery though would not be moved by Churchill's insistence that an early attack be made here was a leader who knew his own mind and was confident of outright victory [Music] British Battle Tactics and strategy were also changed Montgomery's plan provided for an attack in the north and not as roml had done in the South although the north was more heavily defended Montgomery planned to avoid a risky Battle of maneuver which the British army was not yet capable of winning and the north with the coastal Road was the key to the Breakthrough that would be fatal for roml the plan was to attack with infantry the assault would be made at night but under the light of a full moon and the troops were ordered to pierce the German defenses which were several miles deep in places and then wait for tanks to follow them in the tanks would begin their attack a few hours after the Infantry with sappers clearing lanes for them in the Deep German minefields upon linking up with the Infantry they would position themselves on ground of their own choosing as monomer's order put it to repel the inevitable German tank Counterattack from here they were to give cover to their own infantry as they proceeded to crumble away the German defenses which would allow more British forces through Montgomery was essentially engaging in a good late first world war bite and hold operation he was not going to try for an initial breakthrough this came straight from 1917 and 1918 we were reverting to a kind of battle that we understood elaborate deceptions were carried out to convince roml that the British attack would be made to the south of el alamain our job as the seventh armor division job was to act as a faint attack down in the South we saw these large uh numbers of dummy tanks which our people were dotting about all over the place most elaborate camouflaged um formations were brought up and put in position overnight dummy water pipelines were put in position all with the idea of defeating the German reconnaissance planes despite these careful preparations Montgomery expected some 10,000 British casualties and a battle that would last a week but he also hoped in his own words to hit roml for six Right Out of Africa [Music] although RL knew that a British offensive was coming neither he nor anyone else knew exactly when or where as it was on the 23rd of September roml was away on leave in the Austrian Alps seeking to improve his increasingly poor health operation Lightfoot began at 9:40 p.m. on the night of the 23rd of October with one of the biggest artillery barrages of the war a thousand guns opening fire suddenly in the still desert night stunned the unsuspecting Germans and four Allied infantry divisions were soon advancing on a 10mile front the primary offensive Force the Montgomery used at Al alamain was 30 core and starting at the coast and working in land you had uh mors head's ninth AAL Australian division a superb veteran division then you had the 51st Highlanders and then you had Friberg and his new zealanders the second New Zealand Division and then you had the fourth Indian Division and then First South African division so it was an amazing collection of by this stage largely veteran [Music] formations the the advance faltered as they penetrated the main German line of defense a series of interlocking gun pits and foxholes defended by machine guns a nightmare to attack through the thick minefields in bitter and Confused fighting two of the divisions the Australian and New Zealand reached their objectives but the other two stopped well short unsure of their positions confused by the night and the featuress desert as Dawn approached the troops decided to dig in to await the arrival of their covering [Music] tanks not for the first time however the British armor failed to get through to support the Infantry on this occasion however the tank divisions could plead mitigating circumstances they fear that if they were caught in daylight they would actually have no room to maneuver they couldn't move off those corridors because of the minefields and if they did manage to do it what would they find at the end of the corridors German tanks waiting for them or of course the anti-tank guns and so the Cavalry regiments advancing down these these tracks which still had had mines on them which are still not been cleared properly the minute they they ran into into mines lost tracks the minute they they started picking up fire from German 88 mm anti-tank guns the Cavalry stopped and and it was impossible to get them moving [Music] again although Montgomery was very angry he changed the plan knowing from his first world war experience the rapidly diminishing value of repeated attacks on the same objective the four infantry divisions who' taken the brunt of the fighting and the casualties so far were rested the new Plan called for the first Armored Division to attack by itself on a much narrower front towards a low Hill named kidney Ridge by using its own infantry brigades together with its tanks it was hoped some of the confusion of the earlier fighting might be avoided two nights later the Australians would be ordered to move up from their rest area and attack northwards out of their Salient towards the sea to take control of the coastal Road Montgomery was again following one of his basic battle plans vary his attacks keeping his opponent unbalanced but calling off each attack before opposition stiffened and they became too costly meanwhile roml returned to the desert to take [Music] command [Music] for roml immediately moved his 21st paner division up from the south and launched it together with 15th Panza and two Italian infantry divisions at the British a ferocious battle developed around kidney Ridge during which dug in British tanks were able to Maul the German armor for the very first time in battle kidney Ridge during the Battle of el alamine was important because it was the other end of rl's minefields and if you could get through occupy the rid put your guns and tanks on it then you force the Germans to attack you and you are now in a position of strength it was the Infantry of the rifle Brigade that did most of the damage with their six- pounder guns the battlefield is a massive of flaming wrecks they' probably destroyed at least 70 Germans tanks and self-propelled guns and many more vehicles and it was an absolutely outstanding operation in very trying circumstances during the midday sun with the dead and the wounded screaming for help a lack of ammunition a lack of water and they are eventually relieved on schedule the Australians put in their attack two nights later 4 miles north of kidney Ridge stretching the German defenses once more and forcing roml to commit his last trusted formation the 90th light division to contain them the position roml found himself in made the once irrepressible Field Marshal deeply pessimistic rl's despondency was justified for Montgomery was now planning his last Master stroke to win the battle in his battle diary Montgomery noted at the time easily my best fighting General is fryberg of the New Zealand Division and the next is Mo's head of the Australian division both fber and Mo's head were not part of the British Army and thus you could say not part of the system which Montgomery would have described as intriguing and backbiting and had made life so hard for him and the British army as a whole up to this point in time and Montgomery could always rely on fryberg and Morad uh to give him uh free opin free opinions uh on almost any topic Montgomery planned to win the battle by using his two most trusted Generals in tandem mors head would push again in the north to weaken the Germans and then the new zealanders pulling out of the line and repositioned would strike through them to break out along the coastal Road fresh brigades would be fed in to support the New Zealand Force to keep up the pace and the Germans would be pushed aside away from the road and into the desert surrender would rapidly become their only option ironically it was now that Churchill back in London nearly made a catastrophic intervention ever since Montgomery had refused to open the battle prematurely Churchill had been having second thoughts about him now news that first the armored divisions and then the New Zealand division had apparently been withdrawn from the front line sent him into a Purple Rage have we not got a single General who can even win one battle he roared at General alen Brook the Army's Chief extremely tur cable GRS were drafted and a minion was sent to spy out the ground at Montgomery's headquarters however alen Brook defended Montgomery and better news soon arrived to disperse the storm for Montgomery had listened to his staff and had made a critical change to operation supercharge the blow that was designed to end the battle because the Australians threatened to cut off the 164th Division and break through to the coast R very quickly moved moved up the the the 90th light Division and then elements of the 15th and 21st paner division so that but at the end of October the Australians were engaging the very best units that Ral had at his disposal and it was at this point that Montgomery realized that that because the Australians had attracted upon themselves so much of the Africa core so much of rl's reserves that he could revert to to a a modified plan which would essentially be a breakout further south where the German Reserve was no longer in position on the 2nd of November the Australians LED off with their Northern attack then the main blow followed from the new zealanders augmented by British infantry and armored brigades the fighting went on for three days and nights and at first the fighting followed a depressingly familiar pattern the Infantry got forward but most of the supporting tanks did not with a notable exception of the ninth armored Brigade which stuck to the Infantry despite repeated German attacks and lost 70 of its 94 tanks more British tanks got up the next day and after very heavy fighting the Africa core was reduced to just 35 operational tanks on the third of November roml sent a signal to Hitler announcing his intention to save the remainder of his army by retreating in the event the order had little effect most of the Africa core was now fighting only to find a way to escape the final breakthrough came on the 4th of November in the southwest of the great Salient created by operation supercharge when the German and Italian forces made a shambolic Retreat to the West they left behind them all the evidence of a decisive British victory [Music] was of the 100,000 men of the Africa Corps half had been killed wounded or captured roml was incapable of mounting any coherent defense until he had retreated westwards for 1500 miles out of Egypt and almost out of Libya and with the torch Landings behind them on the 8th of November in French North Africa the clearing of all German forces Out of Africa was now just a matter of time the Battle of el alamain was a turning point in the war a watershed beyond all doubt a water shed in terms of Civilian morale the Battle of Al alamain saw a new great Focus for British attention it was the eth Army it was um General Montgomery who achieved this glorious Victory okay hadn't completely defeated RL but had really slapped him around the face and put him back on his heels The Desert Rats as they said in the newspapers were now nibbling at rl's [Music] Hills the British Empire and Commonwealth had fought and won a significant Victory uh without American support it was this sense that finally a corner had been turned and from now on it was going to be Victory after Victory and yes there were going to be disappointments but there was a sense that it was now A downhill run all the way vital though the victory at El alamain was Montgomery still faced considerable CR criticism for his strategy which some called over cautious and unimaginative the criticisms really stem from the fact that some generals and some commentators believe that if Montgomery had changed his plans that actually he could have engaged and destroyed the Africa Cor in situ at Al alamain after ral's defeat uh Montgomery was way too cautious in his Pursuit uh of a broken enemy that if he had pressed harder he could have finished off uh the Africa core then and there the criticisms that were level at Montgomery were fair in one sense that if he had changed his tactics there is a chance or bit quite a small one that he would have been successful but the point of fact is is that this was going to be a slow attritional War and what Montgomery didn't want to do is lose huge casualties doing something that he knew he could could do with fewer casualties perhaps a month or two later down the line Britain's only previous success against Hitler had been the Battle of Britain in 1940 and that it was famously said was the Triumph of the few by contrast El alamain with the Triumph of the many it was a victory for the thousands of factory workers in Britain and America who made the weapons the sailors who convoyed the to North Africa the soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth and their allies among the free Greeks French and poles who used [Music] them late in his life Montgomery Revisited the battlefield which made his reputation and gave him his title time had mellowed the great warrior and the years had given him an opportunity to reflect on his role in the momentous events of 1942 when offered the opportunity to view the Italian and German cemeteries he shook his head I think he said as he walked down the long orderly rows of white British crosses I've been responsible for enough deaths without seeing those too [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 33,670

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, ww2, el Alamein, Alamein, rommel, erwin rommel, Bernard Montgomery, Desert warfare, north africa, war in africa

Id: TbMIOZ6Dcwc

Length: 48min 23sec (2903 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2024