Word: alamein
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Perhaps the men of the Eighth Army, crawling forward into the Axis minefields at El Alamein, began more than they knew last week...
...preparations for battle at El Alamein had been on a scale indicating an effort to retake all of conquered North Africa. They were also preparations for a new kind of battle in the desert...
...Rommel learned when he felt out the British positions in September, El Alamein was no place for the sweeping tank tactics of the open desert. To break either the Axis or the British line, the attacker needed artillery and more artillery, supporting and opening the way for infantry and tanks. Aircraft could-and did-function as flying artillery, but the Eighth Army's main effort in the preliminary stage was to build up its artillery strength. The Germans presumably did the same thing-with what success, the British were learning this week...
...piper skirled a march for the Highlanders in the British front line. Hell broke over El Alamein: from hundreds of hidden positions artillery laid down the heaviest barrage yet seen in the desert. After six hours infantrymen moved toward the Germans' shattered positions. R.A.F. bombers and fighters attacked with the ground forces. The advance units found their way through their own minefields, marched gingerly into the German fields. Soon lights began to twinkle close to the ground: they were guttering flames in gasoline tins, marking alleys through the German fields for the main body of troops and tanks...
CAIRO--Allied troops are battering steadily into the El Alamein line and deserters and prisoners pouring in from the enemy lines, many of whom fought in Russia, admit that the British artillery barrages are worse than anything they endured before Leningrad. Moscow, and Smolensk, front dispatches said tonight...