![]() ![]() ![]() The desert narrowed here to a 60km gap, bounded by the Mediterranean to the north and by the high escarpments of the Qattara Depression to the south. Yet the British General Staff had long recognized the potential of the ‘El Alamein Line’ as the best position to defend Egypt. ‘Lacking in luck, not in valor’ – The furthest point reached by the Italian Army. By then, the situation was so desperate for the Allies that the Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, had already crossed over to Italian Libya in preparation for a triumphal entry into Cairo. The battle of El Alamein proved to be one of the great turning points of WWII, and has been reassessed recently in El Alamein and the Struggle for North Africa edited by Jill Edwards.īy July 1942, the ‘Afrika Korps’ (Panzerarmee) had driven the Allied troops to this last defensible position before the Suez Canal. ![]() It was here that the armies of the European Axis Powers (Germany and Italy) and the Allies (represented by contingents from Britain, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Greece, and the Free French), struggled-between July 1st and November 5th, 1942 - for mastery of North Africa. However, this is a sure sign that we have reached a point just over 100km from Alexandria and a mere 240km northwest of Cairo named El Alamein. The seeming folly of building on this vast scale along the arid coastline somehow prepares the visitor for an equally surreal sight-a light tank in the middle of the road. For kilometers, after leaving Alexandria, sight of the sea is blocked by modern ‘international’ housing developments. ![]() Driving west along the coast road toward Marsa Matruh is a bizarre experience. ![]()
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