On the evening of 23 October, the British Eighth Army under the command of General Bernard Montgomery launched its long
On the evening of 23 October, the British Eighth Army under the command of General Bernard Montgomery launched its long-anticipated offensive to break the strongly-held El Alamein line and drive the Axis out of Egypt. The fighting continued over the next week as Montgomery conducted “crumbling” operations to systematically reduce and wear down the Axis formations. During this time, the British launched a series of local attacks along differing lines of advance that compelled the Axis to respond in kind. In doing so, the British forced Rommel to consume large amounts of precious fuel and other resources as he shifted his forces to meet the various British thrusts. Worse yet from his perspective, Axis counterattacks repeatedly failed to stem the British tide, and his forces suffered heavy losses from the continuous fighting. Particularly hard hit was his tank strength, which declined precipitously. Making Rommel’s situation worse, throughout this period, British and American a...