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**THE SECOND BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN**

 * 1. What events lead to the Sec **** ond Battle of El Alamein? **

**CONTEXT**
Before the Battle of El Alamein, the Allies and the Axis were fighting in Tobruk. From the start of the war up to the Battle of El Alamein, the Allies were loosing all of their battles. Due to this, the Allies were constantly being forced further and further back. They were eventually push back to El Alamein were the Allies time of victory began.

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A brilliant campaign then began on the 23rd of October but ended on 3rd November, 1942. The British forces were led to success by General Montgomery. The Allies found that because they have been pushed so far bak by the Axis, that something needed to be done. The strategised location is in the centre of Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara Depression, symbolises Britain's last chance to defend Africa. However, Rommel's German Forces faced a shortage in supplies while Montgomery faced the opposite problem. With this decisive victory at El Alamein, the Axis Forces retreated and the African Front was closed as the Axis couldn't access the rich oil fields of the Middle East because they were all supplied on all fronts, leading to lesser casualties in the war. Due to the loss of countless battles in Africa, the Commonwealth armies kept on retreating towards El Alamein that had plenty of supplies and strong forces, it seemed like nothing could stop the German and the Italian Armies.=====

** KEY DATES **


While Hitler promised Rommel more fuel, tanks and men, which never appeared, Montgommery built a much stronger and improved army of British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Indian and French soldiers. It consisted of 195,000 men to 104,000 German and Italian men,1,029 tanks to 496 German and Italian tanks, many of which were in an incompatible condition, 2,311 artillery pieces to 1,219 German and Italian artillery pieces and 530 serviceable planes to 350 serviceable German and Italian planes. Field Marshal Rommel's German and Italian troops were now outnumbered two-to-one and were short of reinforcements and supplies as by then, the Allies had successfully worked to sink most Axis resupplyships making their way to North Africa. It made it very hard for Rommel’s army to compete, which thus explains why Rommel called it a “battle without hope.” At the conclusion of the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Allies endured 13,500 casualties from British forces, including 2,694 Australians from the 9th Division, approximately one-fifth of the Eighth Army's total casualties.This was much smaller by percentage of total forces engaged, compared to the Axis as the Axis, on the other hand, endured 37,000 casualties, which was over 30% of Axis forces engaged. Many of Rommel's casualties were Italian.
 * 2. How were the miltary forces involved and affected throughout this battle on both sides?[[image:arinaariannaaimira/his.jpg width="207" height="193" align="right" caption="A machine gun crew photographed soon after the Australians had repulsed a German attack on a ridge at El Alamein, November 1942."]] **
 * || Eighth Army || Panzer Army Africa  ||
 * **Men ** || 195,000  || 104,000(including 50,000 Germans)  ||
 * **Infantry Battalions ** || 85  || 71 including 31 German  ||
 * **Medium tanks ** || 1029  || 496  ||
 * **Antitank guns ** || 1451  || 800  ||
 * **Field and Medium artillery ** || 500  || <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">908  ||
 * **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Aircraft ** || <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">530  || <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">350 (+150 from other)  ||

The Axis also had over 30,000 prisoners taken. On November 4th, 1942, 10,724 Axis prisoners were taken by the British, including nine generals. As the battle was lost by the Axis on November 5th, 1942, 20,000 other Axis prisoners were claimed by the Allies.

Montgomery was planning his counter attack to the Axis forces in late October. He planned for this to be the final stage of the Battle of El Alamein. After months of meticulous planning, Montgomery's plan was finally ready. Everything was in place and all that needed to occur was the order from Montgomery to launch the first stage of the counter attack.
 * 3. What were the major events and outcomes of the battle and what was its significance? **

On October 23 at 9:40pm the onslaught became. The Break-In (first stage) consisted of a 1,000 artillery gun bombardment. Each one of these guns would fire 600 rounds of ammunition. This went on for 50 minutes; until the soldiers could feel the ground shake beneath their feet from the shear power of the weapons. The very next day (24th), stage two was in play. The Crumbling was the beginning of the "crumbling" of the German troops in Africa. The Allies advanced through their territory and even though there were more Allied troops, there was a considerable number of casualties on both sides. Even though it seemed that the Allies were winning, on October the 26th - the 28th there was a stalemate between the Allies and the Axis. The stalemate only lasted one week before Rommel began to run out of supplies and only had two choices. On the 3rd of November, due to the fact that Rommel ran out of gas, his troops had to either surrender to the Allies or walk everywhere. Even though Hitler commanded that they continue to fight to the end, the Nazi Commander saw that they were not going to win this battle and decided the best thing to do would be to retreat and 2 days later, this is exactly what he had done. Due to the retreat of the Axis forces, the Allies officially won the Second Battle of El Alamein.

Before the Battle of El Alamein, the Allies lost almost every battle they fought but on the 6th of November it all changed. the Allies one their first battle yet and from then on, they never lost. This had great significance in the rest of the war because it meant that if the Axis were loosing, their reign to take control of as much land as possible, would be difficult to continue. This meant that the Allies had a better chance at stopping the war after all. Whereas if the Axis won the battle, no one knows what could have happened. People say that if they won it might have been disastrous but in the end we are better off not knowing.

References: [] (video) [] (audio) <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 12px;">[|http://library.thinkquest.org/C001323/data/ww2_el4.html] ﻿ (website) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] (website) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px;">[] (website) <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px;">[] (website) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px;">[|http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_el_alamein_01.shtml#three] (website) [] (website) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] (website)