24 October 1942
A Royal Navy Catalina flying boat rendezvous with HMS Seraph and takes off Clark and his party. All those involved in the feat form the “African Canoe Club.”
A new figure enters the war this date - a tall, dyslexic , profane, three-star general named George Smith Patton Jr. He is to lead the Western Task Force in the invasion of French Morocco. He boards the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, flagship of WTF (Task Force 34), which leads the convoy out of Norfolk Harbor. As the ships shuffle into anti-submarine formation, Patton writes in his diary: “This is my last night in America. It may be for years and it may be forever. God grant that I do my full duty to my men and myself.”
At El Alamein, midnight is punctuated by the remorseless Allied advance. 9th Australian Division is stalled 1,000 yards short of its objective when its supporting British Valentine tanks rumble up in time. The Australian advance leaves the ground “carpeted” with dead Germans of the 164th German Light Division.
When dawn came, Corp. Frank Perversi from 9th Australisan Division could see Australian, German and Italian bodies scattered around :
“In some places perhaps 100 metres square or more there were none. In others just one or two and in others again groups of up to a dozen in a relatively small area. I spent some hours working the field and the trenches systematically. For some reason I thought one body was still alive. He was an Italian lying partly on his back. Rolling him over a bit and examining him more closely I found he was alive though very badly wounded. On his back, and through him, just on the edge of the shoulder blade, was a huge wound made by a burst from a .45 Tommy gun. Dry bones could be seen, there was no blood and he was unconscious. All I could do was to stick a bayoneted rifle upside down near him and later report his position to the field ambulance . . . Almost immediately afterwards, I found a weapon pit as large as a big bedroom with at least fifteen German bodies in it, all higgledy-piggledy. Others could have been beneath them. Their faces were as grey as their uniforms, yet without disturbing them I could see neither wounds nor blood. Six feet from the weapon pit in the trench leading to it was a dugout . . . with a hessian curtain across the front. I drew the curtain back. Sitting in there, facing the front and with his back against the wall, was another grey faced German soldier, his grey eyes wide open and staring straight ahead. Not sure whether he was alive or dead I watched him intently for at least half a minute, no more than two feet from his face, during which time he neither moved, breathed, blinked nor flickered his eyes. There was no sign of a wound or damage to his uniform. It was eerie.”
Frank spotted a line of heads watching him over the top of a trench about 100 metres away.
“With drawn revolver I walked quietly over to them and took nine Italian prisoners of war. Out of the trench, lined up and ready to move off, I [allowed] one man to retrieve some personal items. ‘Ma chi e questo qua? [‘But who is this chap?]’ someone asked. ‘Un renegado [A traitor],’ another replied contemptuously. Sensing real danger I pretended not to hear the remark. Then, noticing that some men seemed to be looking at something to my right and behind me I also looked around, to find five more heads watching me from another trench, this time Germans. I beckoned them over, lined the lot up in a compact squad of three files and walked them about a mile to the road then back towards Alamein and a little later handed them over to a group of soldiers.”
Bill Kibby, a thirty-nine-year-old sergeant in the 2/48th Australian Battalion, was in a platoon ordered to destroy a nest of machine-guns and mortars on Miteiriya Ridge. Calling, ‘Follow me!’, Bill charged the nest with a Tommy gun, killing three enemy soldiers and capturing twelve. It would not be the last heard of Bill Kibby at El Alamein.
The 2/3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station had been established at Borg el-Arab, forty kilometres south-west of Alexandria, before the battle began. At 9 a.m. on 24 October, the first wounded came in. For Sister Dulcie Thompson and her colleagues it was the start of a week of ‘ordered chaos’. They worked without a break for the first day and night. The casualties included [a]rms blown off, legs blown off, lots of shocking leg wounds . . . stomach wounds and head wounds, every kind of casualty that you can imagine, sometimes two or three on one person. I have a very vivid picture of one Greek officer who had neither face nor hands as far as I could see . . . but I didn’t take off the bandages . . . sitting up in bed being fed.
South of 9th Australian, 51st Highland Division continues to attack by night, also suffering heavy casualties. In 51st Highland Division area , two companies of the Gordons are cut down to three officers and 60 men. Another company is cut down by mines, mortars, and machine guns, and stopped cold. The 1st Black Watch suffers heavy casualties reaching its objectives.
In the 2nd New Zealand Division area, the 22nd, 21st, and 28th Maori Battalions go forward, “What a sight!” writes Mick Kenny of 22nd Battalion. “Red flashes all over the place, the air became thick with dust, smoke and burnt cordite. The sound of the Highland bagpipes and the Maori Battalion doing their war cries. What a scene! Something we can’t ever forget.”
Lt. R. Wardell leads his men into attack under heavy enemy fire. "By now we were going through thick dust like fog caused by bursting shells and smoke from bursting shells; it was pinkish to look at as tracer bullets winging through all the time made it so. The enemy used tracer a lot and it was actually possible to avoid machine gun tracer and you could see where it was going and walk beside it as they were firing mostly on fixed lines. "We returned their fire with Bren and rifle fired from the hip, also Tommygun. Then a mortar shell landed almost at my feet, blew me up into the air and when I came to I was quite all right, but Hori Toms my batman had blood pouring from a wound gaping in his hip, and his leg all twisted and broken. Then Adams got hit badly and set his trousers on fire. Sergeant Reidy and I ripped them off. Then Lofty Veale then Simmonds and a few more got wounded, and our stretcher bearers following up did great work. We pushed on all the time.
“On we went and now right in front of us was a large German machine gun pit with about 7 or 8 Germans firing with all they had; we charged them with Brens, Tommys and grenade and finished them off. Then on again. We had come a long way by this time and the fire was terrific. Then we were going through a very heavy cloud of dust and smoke, and I got a most terrific whack on my shoulder and I was on the sand again with blood running down my arm onto my chest.”
Casualties are immense - one platoon is led by a corporal - but the battalion moves up Miteiriya Ridge slowly but surely. One man, while lying on his stomach, feels “what seemed like a worm give a wriggle in the back of my shirt - only it felt hot.” An enemy bullet has gone into the top of his haversack, through a packet of army biscuits, a tin of bully beef, and broken in two, doing the soldier no damage. By 2:35 a.m. 22nd New Zealand Battalion has Miteiryia Ridge, for the loss of 110 men. Before dawn, 22nd’s supporting armor moves up. Sgt. Bart Cox spots clouds of dust heading towards his position through the gloom. "Someone yells, 'Hell, look at that.’ A long line of tanks breaks through the gloom.
“‘They can’t be ours. Too many of them.’ To old desert digs who have waited so often in vain for our tanks to arrive it seemed too good to be true. But it is true, and they are ours - an endless stream pulling in to form a wall of steel along the ridge.”
Further south the Cape Town Highlanders of the South African Division finally clear their original start line by 4 a.m., and then reach their ride by dawn. The Imperial Light Horse battles its way to the top of Miteiriya Ridge, reaching their final objective. 30th Corps has taken Oxalic Line, enabling 9th Armoured Brigade to commence its advance.
9th Armored Brigade’s Grant and Sherman tanks rumble through the German minefields. Periodically a tank explodes on uncleared mines, but by 4 a.m., the Warwickshire Yeomanry’s Grants cross Miteiriya Ridge’s eastern slope, finding 25th NZ Battalion. Six Shermans attack and hit mines, exploding, halting the advance.
The task of mine-clearing is extremely difficult, as it is undertaken by hand. The Germans have hundreds of thousands of them, many unsuspected. British troops prod for mines by eye, with earphones, and bayonets. Once spotted, the mines are carefully exposed and lifted by hand. It takes Royal Engineers two hours to clear a 16-yard-wide gap to a depth of 400 yards. One of the worst aspects is that the German S-mines are springloaded devices that, on contact, bounce into the air, and often explode at a man’s waist-height.
As the British and Commonwealth troops move forward, the armored reserve of 10th Corps advances just after midnight to their startlines. There, 1st and 10th Armoured Divisions refuel from panniers and advance. 1st Armoured moves in support of the Australians and 51st Highland, while 10th Armoured drives to aid the New Zealanders. The ambitious program will hurl the armor through the gaps created by the infantry and across the enemy lines.
1st Armoured Division moves through vast dustclouds and minefields, which delay the advancing Shermans. The tank engines overheat and the tankers believe they are 3,000 yards further west than they actually are.
10th Armoured Division clatters through ground taken by 2nd New Zealand Division and up the forward slope of the Miteiriya Ridge. Their Crusaders and Grants charge over the crest of the dirge, silhouetted against the approaching dawn. The Germans open up with 76.2 mm and 88 mm guns, blasting six Crusaders and 10 Grants. The British are forced to retreat and position hull down behind the ridge to protect infantry.
In the 13th Corps sector, the British advance is slowed by soft sand, which in turn slows down the advancing armor. 7th Armoured Division gets jammed in an area under observation from the Himeimat peaks.
At 2:30 a.m., Pierre Koenig’s 1st French Brigade attacks Himeimat ridge, running into a German group of eight captured Stuart tanks in German service. The Germans shoot up the advancing French column, killing 100 men, stalling Koenig’s advance.
At dawn, the British advance is slowly plodding forward through fierce Axis defenses. There has been no breakthrough or breakout. Some Italian battalions have panicked, and three battalions of the German 164th Light Division are literally destroyed. The 62nd Regiment of the Trento Division has disappeared into thin air. At General Stumme’s Tac HQ near El Daba, General Stumme , the new commander of Panzer Army tries to cope with the onslaught. Short of artillery ammunition, he refuses to let his guns open fire on probably enemy concentration areas. Stumme, an East Front veteran, grabs his driver and Col. Buechting from the staff, and hops into a staff car to find out what’s going on. Chief of Staff Siegfried Westphal asks Stumme to take along an escort and signals truck. Stumme answers jovially that he won’t be gone long.
Stumme drives over to 90th German Light Division’s Tac HQ to find the situation is obscure there - communications are being knocked out - but hears that 15th Panzer Division is engaged. He heads off to 15th Panzer Division HQ to north, Obergefrieter Wolf at the wheel. As the car races across the desert, it comes under British machine gun fire from advanmced Australian positions, killing Buechting while Stumme is standing on the running-board and hanging on to the rear door. Wolf spins back to 90th Light Division lines at top speed. When he returns to 90th Light, the only passenger is the dying Buechting. Stumme is missing. The commander-in-chief of the Axis forces has vanished at the height of the battle. Westphal takes over, hoping someone can relieve him soon.
On the other side of the line, Montgomery is angry that 10th Corps is not advancing. He summons its boss, Gen. Herbert Lumsden, and warns Lumsden to “drive” his divisional commanders. If there is any more hanging back, Monty will sack them. The armor must get through to the New Zealanders.
While Montgomery speaks to Lumsden, De Guingand tabulates casualties. So far 1,500 POWs have been taken, 500 of them German. 30th Corps has lost about 2,500 men, 350 Australians, 350 South Africans, 600 New Zealanders, and 1,000 from 51st Highland Division.
By day, Horrocks’ attack is stalled. 7th Armoured Division cannot break through the minefields without suffering immense losses. 22nd Armored Brigade blundered into an advance minefield and lost 30 tanks to either mines or Axis anti tank guns. Brig. John Harding, leading the 7th’s attack, confers with his commanders under German fire, and then drives off, personally wheeling his jeep. A German shell lands in front of the jeep, killing Harding’s aide-de-camp. After this narrow escape, Harding asks for volunteers to clear gaps in the mines. A colonel of engineers protests the order, then calls for volunteers. They try to clear the gap, but are dispersed by enemy fire. Harding then sends in two tanks, which become targets for German guns. Nonetheless, the tanks clear gaps in the minefield. But the gaps are useless, as German anti-tank fire covers the gap exits. Harding orders his armor to wait until nightfall, then try again. In the north, Freyberg calls for support from 8th Armoured Brigade. His message has to go from his Tac HQ to 30th Corps, who passes it to 10th Corps, and then to 10th Armoured Division. This slow communications route wastes time.
Meanwhile, General Douglas Wimberley, following his 51st Highland Division, sets off in a jeep and into battle. Mortar fire hits his jeep and flips the general out of it. He regains consciousness with some burns, and manages to return to his HQ for medical treatment. His two aides in the jeep are killed.
While Wimberley’s wounds are tended, his officers argue with 50th Royal Tank Regiment over where everyone is and supposed to be. 51st Highland Division’s object is Kidney Ridge, codenamed “Aberdeen.” After some arguing, 2nd Armoured Brigade moves forward and attacks. The Seaforths take 85 casualties, including all the officers and sergeant-major of one company, which is led on the last charge by the company clerk.
In the dust and smoke, 10th Hussars, which believe they are 3,000 yards west of where they actually are, run smack into German defenses, and lose 20 Sherman tanks due to German anti tank gun fire.
Across the line, General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, commanding the Afrika Korps, turns up at Panzer Army Afrika’s Tac HQ to discover his boss, Stumme, missing in action. He takes over from Westphal, and learns about the new Sherman tank, which is apparently invulnerable to 15th Panzer Division’s Mark IIIJ tanks. The 50mm longbore guns cannot penetrate the Sherman’s armor. Thoma cannot release the 21st Panzer and Ariete Divisions from the south to stop the British in the north. The static line has been breached in many places, and Thoma has no reserve.
He sets off from Panzer Army Afrika’s Tac HQ to 15th Panzer Division’s Tac HA to organize a counterattack.
While the battle rages in Egypt, the one man who can restore order to such fluid situations is at a convalescent home in Semmering, Austria. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and his wife and son, are vacationing. Rommel, worn by dysentery and fatigue, is having his first leave in years. During the afternoon, he gets a phone call from Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler’s chief lackey at Oberkommando Wehrmacht. Is Rommel possibly well enough to fly to the desert and take up command immediately?
Rommel is stunned. Of course, he says. Keitel tells Rommel to pack. Back in the desert, the Germans have solved one mystery - Stumme’s body has been found alongside the track leading to 90th Light Division HQ. Apparently he hung on to the side of the car as long as possible, and then suffered a heart attack.
General Von Thoma, however, is at 15th Panzer Division’s Tac HQ, and finds things are a mess. He has left with three days’ fuel instead of 30, and 15th Panzer Division has only 31 tanks fit for action. Recovery teams trying to bring back damaged vehicles are mercilessly being cut down by British aircraft and artillery.
The British attack continues. By now traditional problems are dogging the 8th Army. New Zealanders are not coordinating with their attached British armor. Freyberg tells his corps commander that he cannot attack as the British armor has not arrived. The British tankers have no confidence in a night attack. The attack is ordered anyway.
That evening, New Zealand sappers start clearing lanes for the advance, coming under German fire. German guns batter 26th New Zealand Battalion. Making matters worse, New Zealand guns, acting on erroneous information, shell their own troops. The battalion takes a pounding from both sides. Under the barrage, 2nd New Zealand Division’s Divisional Cavalry struggles forward through the gaps, 9th Armoured Brigade’s Crusader tanks rumble through the gap, and find themselves going the wrong way. Brigadier Currie personally reconnoiters a path and sends the Grants and Shermans of 3rd Hussars off.
Nottinghamshire Yeomanry follows, and a German shell hits a petrol carrier, illuminating the column and spreading an inferno across it. The Germans target the tightly-packed column of vehicles and destroy 25 trucks, sending fuel, ammunition exploding into a stunning and horrifying display. 8th Armoured Brigade is halted. Freyberg is furious, and he rings Leese to say that 10th Armoured is doing nothing. Leese passes this call on to Guingand. The battle between Allied and Axis forces (and between generals of Eighth Army) continues to rage beyond midnight.
25 October 1942
Maj. Gen. Mark W. Clark returns to London to report to Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on his trip to Algeria. He brings details of the location of troops, batteries, and installations at Oran and Algiers, and assures him of French cooperation there. He also notes that the French have warned that the Allied forces must move swiftly to Tunisia. The French command situation, however, remains a mess - no practical measures to arm or cooperate with the local resistance, no decision on who should hold supreme command. The real problems remain unsettled, despite Clark’s bravery and mission’s high drama and romance. Ike is still operating in the dark. But he refuses to panic, trusting in his “luck and figure that a certain amount of good fortune will bless us when the crucial day arrives.”
In the evening, Ike, Clark, and the senior staff listen to BBC news and get the word that the British attack at Alamein is underway.
Just after midnight in Egypt, Gen. Francis de Guingand deals with Freyberg’s complaints about 10th Armoured Division by summoning corps commanders Leese and Lumsden to 8th Army Tac HQ at 3:30 a.m.
As gunfire continues to blaze at the Alamein battlefield, the two generals hop in their command cars and drive to Lt. Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery’s caravan, finding the peppery Montgomery studying the battle map.
2nd New Zealand Division is unable to advance across Miteiriya Ridge, because of lack of support from Maj. Gen. Alec Gatehouse’s British 10th Armoured Division. Monty asks Gatehouse and his corps commander, Lumsden, why 10th Armoured Division is not advancing.
Lumsden reports that Gatehouse says he does not care about the operation, that if his division advances up the ridge, it will be in an “unpleasant situation,” and that his division is untrained and not fit for such operations. He wants to stay where he is.
Montgomery keeps his temper. He insists that his plan will be adhered to. The armor will break over the ridge and shield the infantry. (unlike July battles when they left advancing infantry defenceless) The armor will get out from the minefield area and into the open. If Gatehouse or any other commander is not “for it,” Monty will sack him at once. Lumsden heads back to Gatehouse, ordering the latter to advance.
While these generals whine and bicker, one Commonwealth general takes the initiative. Maj. Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg, leading 2nd New Zealand Division, requests 8th Armoured Brigade to advance in support of his 6 New Zealand Brigade. By 3:30 a.m., the lead tanks of 3rd Royal Tank Regiment clank through minefields, creating gaps that 6th NZ Brigade moved through at dawn, followed by 9th Armoured Brigade.
A British tanker writes, *"As the light became full day, the sky overhead became black with fighter planes and bombers trying to shoot each other down. This was indeed war with a vengeance. I remember jumping on top of the turret on my tank and asking Major Everleigh, who was trying to shoot down a plane with a .50 machine gun, to let me have a go. *
*"Then as the day wore on the sight of sappers lining up and going over the ridge to probe for mines with bayonets was terrible and awe-inspiring to watch. Everyone of them deserved a medal, as they seemed to go to certain death. They no sooner `went over’ than bursts of enemy machine-gun fire seemed to wipe them out; then another line would form up, stub out their cigarettes, and move over the top. It was a privilege to be in the company of such men. *
“The Alamein battle was a sheer slogging match over open sights, brutal and horrifying. I can remember dust churned to a fine powder, moving back and forth like liquid away from the tank tracks as it swirled over the bodies of men. If I remember rightly we were left with 17 tanks in the whole brigade and ceased to exist as a brigade. The Germans broke and ran.”
On the western side of the ridge, 24th Armoured Brigade’s 83 Shermans and 48 Crusaders rumble through a gap in the main minefield, and over the crest of the ridge and down the forward slope. They are joined by Grant tanks of 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, creating an impressive display of armor and firepower. However, German anti-tank guns and mines rip apart nine tanks.
At 6:15, 24th Armored Brigade is ordered by Gatehouse to withdraw two regiments off the ridge. All three regiments pull out, leaving 9th Armoured Brigade alone on the hill, awaiting enemy counterattack.
When 15th Panzer Divison counterattacks in early afternoon , 24th Armored Brigade tanks in hull down positions open up and destroy 15 German panzers and repulse the rest away.
Meanwhile, 2nd Armoured Brigade, still 1,000 yards short of Kidney Hill, struggles to attack, and comes under German fire. Eight Shermans and two Crusaders die in battle. However when Germans tried to counter attack here , they too were repulsed again , losing 12 panzers to British anti tank guns of 2nd Rifle Brigade and air raids of Desert Air Force. In further south at 13th Corps front , 7th Armoured Division stalls in the German “February” minefield.
Montgomery, given inaccurate information, gives orders that are not relevant to the situation. But by 11:30, after a meeting with Alexander, he learns that his armor has still been unable to break out. The battle is “fizzling out,” with momentum dying.
Monty meets with Leese, Lumsden, and Freyberg to discuss the situation. Freyberg suggests postponing the New Zealanders’ exploitation to the south, in favor of a massive artillery barrage. Monty vetoes that, saying it would be “dancing to the enemy’s tune.”
At the precise time that Monty and Freyberg are planning their next moves, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is in Rome, getting a briefing on the situation in Africa. The German position is parlous, too. Supplies are short. 15th Panzer Division has only 31 tanks ready for action, and there is only three days’ supply of fuel. Allied air and artillery bombardment is making movement impossible.
“I knew there were no more laurels to be won in Africa,” he writes later. “For I had been told in the reports from my officers that supplies had fallen far short of my minimum demands.” Gloomy, the Desert Fox flies across the Mediterranean, switching from an HE 111 in Crete to a Do 217, to Qasaba, where his Fieseler Storch command plane awaits. Rommel flies from there to Panzerarmee Afrika’s Tac HQ.
There, one mystery is solved. German troops bring in General Stumme’s body, found alongside the track his staff car used. Apparently he hung on the side of the car after his chauffeur turned it around, and suffered a heart attack. Stumme’s blood pressure is too high for tropical service.
Thoma briefs Rommel, saying that the German minefields are systematically being destroyed by artillery bombardment and enemy engineers, and British troops have taken them with light casualties. Fuel shortages are permitting only limited movement. Counterattacks by 15th Panzer Division are being defeated with heavy casualties from systematic bombing. Only 31 of its tanks are ready for battle.
Thoma reports that the RAF rules the skies, making movement even more difficult. This is not the battle Rommel wants to fight - a grinding battle of attrition and materiel. However, Rommel - despite his reputation as an armored leader - is also a skilled infantryman. Rommel signals his forces, “I have taken command of the army again. Rommel.” That signal boosts German morale.
While Rommel ingests the bad news, Montgomery ponders the situation. He decides to try one of his best weapons, the 9th Australian Division, which has suffered the fewest casualties. He orders the Australians to drive north to the coast from their right flank, cutting the coast road and railway, and isolating a battalion of Italian Bersaglieri and the German 125th Infantry Regiment. 1st Armoured Division’s three brigades (2nd Armoured, 24th Armoured, and 7th Motor Brigade) will guard the Australians’ new left flank, while the New Zealanders and 10th Armoured Division will consolidate behind Miteiriya Ridge.
Monty cuts the orders, and Maj. Gen. Leslie “Ming the Merciless” Morehead, commanding 9th Australian Division, goes straight to work, sending in aggressive patrols. The patrols scoop up the commanding officer of the 125th German Regiment , German colonel. The Australians question the German, and he gives full details about his positions. The Australians prepare a midnight attack.
South of the 9th Australians Division, 51st Highland Division continues its attack, backed by 2nd Armoured Brigade, squeezing through minefields and shell holes. A company of the 1st Gordons remains isolated on the battlefield. Gen. Douglas Wimberley sends in a silent attack just before midnight that finds the missing company, almost out of water and ammunition and relieve it back.
A British infantry lieutenant describes the fighting: "The inferno that was the great battle of Alamein continued unabated. The appalling din of guns firing and shells bursting, the grim sights of mangled men and twisted corpses, the nauseating smell that was a mixture of sulphur and rotting human flesh, the mental strain from sleeplessness and responsibility, the fear of breaking down in front of the men: all these became every day things. I suppose that we grew accustomed to them, for as time went on we noticed them less."