The swift advance of the Italian Army bolstered by the German Afrika Corps in North Africa was quickly reflecting the unshakeable advances in Europe. Hence winning the war in the desert was pivotal. If the Afrika Korps reached and captured the British held Suez Canal, the ability of the Allies to supply themselves with both men and resources from the colonies and Commonwealth would be critically affected, the alternate supply route being around Africa which was not only far longer but dangerous too as passing the Cape of Good Hope pushes shipping into the roaring forties and requires covering large distances of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. At the time a lot of consideration was also given to the implications as the German Kriegsmarine would gain unopposed access to the Indian Ocean, further into the east and towards Axis ally Japan. The psychological blow of losing the Suez Canal and the war in North Africa would have been incalculable especially considering the blow to the war effort and public atmosphere as Italy and Germany gained free access to oil in the Middle East and the Jewish population in Yeshuv. |
By summer 1942, close to three years since the outbreak of war, the Allies were in trouble throughout Europe. The surprise German attack launched against Russia - Operation Barbarossa - was the largest military assault of the war and since the 22nd of June 1941 had had appalling consequences for the Russian people. By the time Rommel's Afrika Corps and Montgomery faced off at El Alamein the Wehrmacht had pushed the Russian Red Army and European Eastern Front to Stalingrad. The operations of Nazi U-boats in the Atlantic were having a major effect on British and US commercial shipping as well as the flow of Allied support to alleviate the severe Russian losses. Western Europe had long since seemed fully in the control of the Germans. In 1940 German armour had quickly outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deeper into France with the Wehrmacht arriving in an undefended Paris on the 14th June 1940, this quickly resulted in a chaotic period of flight for the French government, the effective end of organised French military resistance and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk and establishment of the unoccupied zone, the zone libre, governed by the newly formed Vichy government.
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Significance of a German Defeat
Daphana Sharfman tells us less than a third of the Axis force that faced the Commonwealth forces at El Alamein, made it back across the Libyan border. As many as Germans were 8,050 captured in addition to an astounding 15,552 Italians.2 There was talk of an Axis offensive through Egypt linking up with a German drive down from Russia. A German infantryman declared that the objective of the German thrust in south Russia in mid-1942 was simple: 'Down the Caucasus, round the corner, slice the British through the rear, and say to Rommel, "Hello, General, here we are!" '
Instead, as historian ... points out Rommel watched the army he had scrapped together and built in the North African Desert routed and destroyed. Lacking sufficient transportation, Rommel was forced to abandon many of his Italian infantry divisions. As a result, four Italian divisions effectively ceased to exist. Coupled with the Torch Landings in Morocco and Algeria, El Alamein marked the effective end of the Axis threat in North Africa. quote and critic Stephen Hart (Lecturer - Sandhurst Military Academy) sees El Alamein as "demonstrating" rather than achieving Allied superiority. "The victory of El Alamein proclaimed to the world that the war had really turned against the Axis. The importance of El Alamein was that the Allies finally proved that they had learnt how to translate strategic advantage into military success on the ground. It served notice to the Axis that they would pay an ever greater price in human and material terms for their aggression."
There is a significant trend of discord amongst historians regarding the significance of the Battle of Stalingrad compared to El Alamein as a contributor to the outcome of the Second World War. Most however agree that El Alamein and the Battle of Stalingrad make up the turning points of World War II. While victory at El Alamein does not compare with Stalingrad in terms of intensity and scale, one Russian scholar, Makhmut Gareyev, WW2 veteran and president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, argues it was the British victory at El Alamein and triumph over Rommel that marked the war’s biggest turning point. "The first defeat of Erwin Rommel, Germany’s legendary practitioner of blitzkrieg tactics, and a pivotal and incredible morale boost for the Allies - marking the first defeat of Erwin Rommel, Germany’s legendary practitioner of blitzkrieg tactics." Wehrmacht’s losses at Stalingrad – not just in men, but in supplies of arms and materiel – brought Germany to the brink of a military, political and economic crisis. Most would disagree, El Alamein was certainly a major contributor to ending the German presence in North Africa and a substantial contribution to the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany, at Stalingrad, less than three months later the surrender of the German 8th Army was a greater hit Hitler and the Wehrmacht’s morale.
Seccond el alamein and morale
“Before El Alamein we never had a victory, after we never had a defeat.”
El Alamein was certainly one of the most significant and pivotal moments of the war, it is no great measure for a historian to label it "a turning point for the War and British morale", (Richard Holmes, General Editor of The Oxford Companion to Military History, 2011), the battle undoubtedly had a spectacular and momentous affect on morale and the war effort.
On the 10th of November Winston Churchill addressed the public at Mansion House “The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Later Churchill would write, “Before El Alamein we never had a victory, after we never had a defeat.” - so ran a popular saying of the day - such a change in morale was momentous. An emotive and rallying speech, Winston Churchill’s address at the Lord Mayor’s Day Luncheon is amongst his most revered. As a war time speech from the British Prime Minister it can be assumed few men at the time had as much access to information or awareness to the wider context and significance regarding the battle as did Churchill at this point in time however emotive and fulfilling an powerful agenda. This was the message conveyed to the public and army at the time through the press and radio as the speech was broadcast to a considerable audience around the world. Churchill’s use of historical allusion to Britain’s Military past “and all our foes submitted themselves to our will”, use of powerful language “a remarkable and definite victory”, and sense of justice established “When I read of the coastal road crammed with fleeing Germans … under the blasting attacks of the [RAF], I could not but remember … France and Flanders … helpless refugees - women and children - fleeing … upon whom such merciless havoc was wreaked.” it is very apparent what the men and woman of the war effort would have been thinking. Historian David Knowles paints a valuable picture of morale and the Allied situation prior to victory at El Alamein: "We had suffered defeats for the previous two years, and we were demoralised. Morale was at its lowest ebb... Germany had invaded Greece and Yugoslavia... U-boats started sinking ships in the Atlantic which were bringing us food and arms. And bombing in Britain was continuing - more than 1,000 bombers attacked Canterbury in June 1942... Somehow we needed a victory." Somebody believed German victory in Egypt was "a strategic improbability", however the psychological impact of British loss in Egypt would have been enormous. He denotes that Hitler certainly did not regard North Africa as a sideshow, and his decision to send massive reinforcements to the theatre after El Alamein would eventually result in Axis losses in North Africa being greater than they were at Stalingrad "A battle of the greatest significance. |
1
Sharfman, D. (2014). Palestine in the Second World War: Strategic Plans and Political Dilemmas (1st ed.). Eastbourne: Sussex Educational Press.
2 Barr, N. (2006). Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (Vol. 1). London: The Overlook Press.
3 Gareyev, M. (n.d.). Konturen des bewaffneten Kampfes der Zukunft: Ein Ausblick auf das Militarwesen in den nachsten 10 bis 15 Jahren. Moscow: Zukunft.
2 Barr, N. (2006). Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (Vol. 1). London: The Overlook Press.
3 Gareyev, M. (n.d.). Konturen des bewaffneten Kampfes der Zukunft: Ein Ausblick auf das Militarwesen in den nachsten 10 bis 15 Jahren. Moscow: Zukunft.