British and Allied forces had been present in North Africa since the start of the war but had suffered a series of defeats until the First Battle of El Alamein

“HIS LIMITED RECONNAISSANCE WAS SOON TO BE FOUND WANTING AS HE HAD FAILED TO APPRECIATE THE STRENGTH OF THE SOUTH AFRICANS”

THE WESTERN DESERT

1 - 27 JULY 1942

There’s a famous photo of General Auchinleck looking back, almost forlorn, hoping perhaps to see more of his Eighth Army troops getting back from the ‘Gazala Gallop’. Most would argue Montgomery won the Desert War, especially the man himself, but this would be to diminish the ‘Auk’s’ achievement. The pendulum of war in North Africa swung several times and the Auk proved a capable soldier. Stopping Rommel’s headlong rush toward the Nile Delta at El Alamein laid the foundations for eventual victory.

The Battle of Mersa Matruh had been another reverse for the Allies yet, despite this setback, Auchinleck had kept his army together. Only by preserving mobile field forces could the British position in the Middle East be saved. He had now retreated beyond Wavell’s ‘worst case’ and was considering how best to defend the Delta itself.

Meanwhile, there was the ground south of El Alamein, a 38-mile strip of desert that lies between salt marsh and sea to the north and the impassable Qattara Depression, where no tank could tread. Here was terrain that favoured a defensive battle. For the most part this area is featureless until one reaches the rock-strewn hills that flank the waste of marsh and dune fronting the depression. Even these are no more than 700 feet above sea level, but nearer the sea are the various pimples, rounded hillocks or ‘tells’ of which Tell el Eisa and Tell el Makh Khad would prove significant.

The surfaces are everywhere barren; loose, deepening sand alternating with unyielding rock, which emerges in the narrow lateral ridges Miteirya, Ruweisat and Alam el Halfa.

The Alamein position had been identified as a natural defence line for the Delta some years beforehand. Efforts at constructing a line of fortifications had begun in the early days but operational demands had