El-Alamein War Memorials & Museum

By mid-1942, Axis forces under Erwin Rommel had pushed across Libya into Egypt, threatening Alexandria, Cairo and the Suez Canal. El-Alamein was the last defensible position: a gap of about 60 km between the sea and the impassable Qattara Depression. In the First Battle of El-Alamein in July, the Allied Eighth Army halted the advance.

Under Bernard Montgomery, the Eighth Army launched the Second Battle on 23 October 1942 with a massive artillery barrage. After nearly three weeks of fighting through minefields, the Axis forces retreated. Winston Churchill later wrote: 'Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.'

The Commonwealth War Cemetery holds thousands of graves of soldiers from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and elsewhere. The German memorial is a fortress-like octagon on a hill above the sea, and the Italian memorial is a tall white tower. The El-Alamein Military Museum explains the campaign with maps, uniforms and vehicles.

The Second Battle of El-Alamein opened on the night of 23 October 1942 with Operation Lightfoot, when infantry and engineers cleared paths through deep minefields under a barrage from nearly 900 guns. After days of costly fighting, Operation Supercharge broke through in early November, and on 4 November Rommel began his retreat — defying Hitler's order to stand fast.

The El-Alamein Military Museum opened in 1956 and was renovated in 1992. Its halls cover the North African campaign from the viewpoint of each army, and outside stand tanks, guns and vehicles from the battle.