November 1942

For a while it seemed that the Axis might bring the overall British offensive to a halt. The German minefields and accurate anti-tank fire produced a mounting toll of knocked-out British tanks. But progress by the infantry, especially the Australian and New Zealand Divisions, opened up corridors through the Axis defences in the north that the British could exploit. Now, after ten days of battle, the Axis forces at El Alamein were still clinging on. Both sides had sustained heavy casualties. But the British had plenty in reserve – whereas the Germans and Italians had nothing to replace their tank losses and were running short of fuel and ammunition.

1st November 1942 – Map 1/50,000 Daba-Alex Sheet 6 El Mreir 8841 2752
06:00hrs – Lieutenant-Colonel Hill appointed area commander NZ area. 211 Bty finished firing on HF (harassing fire) tasks. Quiet on Divisional Front.  
10:55hrs – Two enemy OP’s engaged as targets
18:30hrs – New OP manned at 8798 2695
23:45hrs – Artillery barrage to North. RAF bombed northern area heavily. Q battery engaged enemy with HF during the night.

Operation Supercharge

On 2nd November 1942, Montgomery launched Operation Supercharge – a new attack designed to make the final breakthrough. Much like Operation Lightfoot, Supercharge started with a seven-hour aerial bombardment focused on Tel el Aqqaqir and Sidi Abd el Rahman, followed by a four and a half-hour barrage of 360 guns firing 15,000 shells before the infantry and armour pushed forward.

The objective was to destroy enemy armour, forcing the enemy to fight in the open, reducing the Axis stock of petrol (which was already a limiting factor in the Afrika Korps ability to mount an assault), attacking enemy supply routes and therefore causing the disintegration of the enemy forces.

Despite the British forces coming out the other side of the first ten days of battle looking to have the upper hand, both men and machinery on the front had taken a beating; and yet the battle in the northern sectors was about to get much fiercer and desperate as the Axis troops fought for their survival.

Deployment of forces by the 4th November 1943. Noclador, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2nd November 1942 – Map 1/50,000 Daba-Alex Sheet 6 El Mreir 8841 2752
08:00hrs – Greek Brigade raid reported to be a failure.
12:00hrs – 111 Fd Regt took part in 13 Corps concentrations. Front quiet, but enemy OP’s and working parties engaged as observed.
22:30hrs – 211 and 212 Btys fired on 13 corps concentrations until 23:15
3rd November 1942 – Map 1/50,000 Daba-Alex Sheet 6 El Mreir 8841 2752
07:00hrs – OP’s reported enemy mortar and MG fire on them during the night. During the day, patrols of Greek, Fighting French accompanied by our F.O.O’s were active on whole front during the day. Enemy have withdrawn from foremost positions. Patrols encountered no immediate opposition other that mines and booby-traps. 111 Fd Regt took part during morning in various Divisional concentrations.
16:00hrs – Commander of 50th Division visited all Btys and HQ of 111 Fd Regt.
4th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
Patrol activity with F.O.O’s in attendance continued on Divisional Front. Advance was general, but isolated pockets of resistance, notably Fortress A 868270, were discovered.
10:30hrs – Orders received from RA 50th Division that primary role of 111 Fd Regt is to support S.E. Yorks in holding RUWEISAT RIDGE against possible counter-attack from North. L.O (Liaison Officer)  and F.O.O sent to contact C.O. of S.E. Yorks.
22:30hrs – Orders received from RA 50th Division that one Bty (212 Bty) is to come under command 124th Fd Regiment in support of 69 Brigade. 212 Bty is to move west with S.E. Yorks at first light 5th November.

A few days prior on 2nd November, despite continuing to fight, Rommel signalled to Hitler that the battle was lost. Rommel’s personal diary read:

“The army’s strength was so exhausted after its ten days of battle that it was not now capable of offering any effective opposition to the enemy’s next break-through attempt … With our great shortage of vehicles an orderly withdrawal of the non-motorised forces appeared impossible … In these circumstances we had to reckon, at the least, with the gradual destruction of the army”.

Although initially refused permission to retreat, Rommel began the withdrawal of his German units. In fact, Rommel was already well underway with his retreat before receiving permission from Hitler, leaving his Italian allies—who lacked motor transport—to be mopped up by the British.

The Battle of El Alamein ended with considerable loss of life on both sides, as detailed in the table below. Such was the victory that on Sunday, 8 November 1942, for the first time in three years, church bells rang throughout Britain in celebration of the victory. For the first time in the war the Allies had won a major victory over the German army and one of its great generals. 

Axis ForcesAllied Forces
2,000-9,000 dead, 4,800 – 15,000 wounded, 35,000 – 49,000 captured13,560 killed, captured or missing
500 tanks destroyed332 – 500 tanks destroyed
254 artillery guns destroyed111 artillery guns destroyed
84 aircraft destroyed97 aircraft destroyed

“The enemy gradually withdrew from our front, too. We withdrew to the eastern end of New Zealand Box and spent two horrible weeks of parading, P.T., poor food, sandstorms, inspections etc. Water was at a premium and no one thought anything of using four gallons of petrol to wash a shirt and pair of shorts.

C Troop went off on a flying column business and came back a week later having been almost as far as Sallum (harbour city in Egypt near the border with Libya). The whole battery went off on the trail; going through the Gerry lines was quite an experience. God alone knows how the P.B.I. (Poor Bloody Infantry) got through. Mines and machine gun nests, the white taped paths which engineers had laid were still being followed through the minefields. Booby traps were everywhere. We spent a week out and then back to New Zealand Box. Whilst out, we got loads of stuff. I got a Beretta automatic, two paratroop fighting knives, shirts, shorts etc. All of which eventually disappeared. Some blokes were lucky and managed to get hold of a prisoner with a good wristlet watch. We had many a good singsong at nights. Wrapped up in our beds in the middle of the desert waste. All thinking of one thing – home.”

Diary entry from November 1942 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”.

5th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
06:30hrs – RA 50th Division Operational Order No. 23 received. Operations on 50th Division front consisted of mopping up operations during which 5000 PW (Prisoners of War) were captured. 111 Fd Regt less two batteries took no part in this.
6th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
476 Bty returned under command of 111 Fd Regt. Role of 50th Division now confined to clearing the battlefield. 111 Fd Regt accordingly sent out vehicles to collect the salvage, particularly guns and enemy ammo.
7th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
The salvage drive continued
8th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
B Echelon moved up to the Regimental area
9th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
212 Bty less C Troop reverted to command of 111 Fd Regt. C Troop remained out on flying column in area west of 800 Easting Grid Line.
10th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
111 Fd Regt continued to collect salvage. Several enemy guns and much ammo and cable brought in.
11th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
111 Fd Regt continued to collect salvage. Several enemy guns and much ammo and cable brought in.
12th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
C.O. of 111 Fd Regt inspected 476 Bty. C.O. 111 Fd Regt attended a CRA’s conference in training and deficiencies. Permission was granted for certain officers and OR’s to visit Alexandria. The Adjutant was one of the first to avail himself of this privilege.
13th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
C.O. of 111 Fd Regt inspected 211 Bty and RHQ. The results of the RHQ inspection were rather more satisfactory that those of the other two batteries. The Adjutant having returned from Alexandria refreshed, the Second in Command left on a visit there. The salvage drive came to an end. The 111 Fd Regt contributed not less that its fair share to the 50th Division total.
14th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
C.O. of 111 Fd Regt inspected 212 Bty with unsatisfactory results. The stern business of fighting being temporarily at an end, recreational training was inaugurated with a football match which ended when the ball burst. A Captain Jenkins RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corp) came to inspect the area from a hygiene aspect. He was regarded with grave suspicion as he was without a medical card. The M.O. (Medical Officer) persuaded him to build us some latrine seats. C Troop returned from its exercise in the desert.
15th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
The PADRE of 74 Fd Regt conducted an open-air church service attended by about 100 men. This was followed by a celebration of Holy Communion.
16th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
Regimental Cadre classes for signallers and newly appointed NCO’s were started. Individual training was started under Bty arrangements on an organised programme.
14:00hrs – C.O. of 111 Fd Regt inspected the guns of 211 Fd Bty. B Troop guns were dirty and will have to be re-inspected.
22:00hrs – 111 Fd Regt received warning order to move and come under 30 Corps as Corps Artillery Move now to take place before 21st November. This order was received with regret as the Regt had been trained mainly as Divisional Artillery and as cordial relations had been established with HQRA 50th Division.
18th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
Training was partially interrupted by a divisional detail to provide 24 3-tonners and 100 men for salvage. C.O. 111 Fd Regt inspected 212 and 476 Btys.
21st November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
476 Fd Bty collected 2 25-Pdrs from 1st Fd Regt to replace un-serviceable guns.
23rd November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
111 Fd Regt received warning order to move to West of CHARING CROSS in two stages starting 27th November. CRA 50th Division inspected 111 Fd Regt.

“The regiment finally received orders to get on the move again, so we packed up, went north and struck the main coast road that runs from Tunis to Alex. We hit the road at El Alamein, a tiny village with a cluster of wog houses and a single platformed station. It was good to be on a road again, away from the choking dust of the desert. The scenery was fairly monotonous so we spent most of our time asleep. I can’t remember exactly where we stayed on the first part of our journey, which took us as far as the Gulf of Sirte, but I can remember the route. We were in reserve and saw no action until December.

We went through El Ghazalia. El Daka, Fuka, where Gerry had a large aerodrome, we stayed there one night, then we turned into the desert missing altogether Marsa Matruh, Kasr Schama, Ras Haleina, Buq Buq, Solumn, Bardia, Tobruk, Bomba, Derna, Cup Polonia and Bavel and we hit the main road again between Benghazi and Agedabia.

During our desert wanderings, which lasted some two or three weeks, we went through that much fought for place, Bir Hacheim. I was disappointed, a lot of mud huts, trenches and barbed wire. I must confess the thoughts of the battles that had raged there thrilled me to a certain extent. I should have mentioned that the place where we turned into the desert was Sidi al-Barrani. It’s quite impossible for anyone who has seen a village with its oasis or couple of wells and dozen houses to conceive two armies striving like hell for its possession unless they have felt the pangs of thirst and know that with the possession of such a water point the enemy is compelled to withdraw perhaps forty or fifty miles.

On hitting the road again some forty miles from Agedabia we pitched our camp for a couple of days and then off again. Breave had left us at El Adem, south of Tobruk, so I was in charge of the command post and rode in H with Bill Ogden. He and I scoffed at least an emergency ration a day. Odd ones we had the good fortune to find. I ate things then that an honest tramp would turn his nose up at. Our food was poor. No bread, biscuits, bully, stew and bacon we lived on, existed on would be more correct.

At Agedabia we were damned lucky. We came to a crossroads with some waste ground on our right and being the leading vehicle and in a hurry, we just barged across the spare ground. A yell reached us as we were half way across, as we jerked to a halt an M.P. from the roadway shouted: “For Christ sake be careful, that’s mined!” Fortunately, only our truck and Y had trespassed, the rest of the column the M.P. sent around the crossroads. Captain Knott, C.P.O. said to Bill to go on. So old Bill, calm as hell, stuck her in gear and slowly pulled away. Little Ogden was as white as a ghost; I must have looked pretty bad too. We both stood up, sweat pouring off. I’d seen what a mine could do and visualised myself going up. After an eternity, about ten minutes, we hit the road again. Swore with relief, wiped off the sweat and laughed hysterically at each other. We pulled into the desert again for ten miles or so and then leaguered.”

Diary entry from November 1942 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”

26th November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
G.O.C. (General Officer Commanding) 50th Division visited 111 Fd Regt and addressed officers. Advance party left to recce new regimental area.
27th November 1942 – Fuka
111 Fd Regt moved at 0800hrs. Travel to FUKA (787379). LAD did not reach staging area.
28th November 1942 – Mersa Matruh – Sidi Barrani road
Regt left FUKA 0830hrs and reached KILO29 on Mersa Matruh – Sidi Barrani road. LAD rejoined Regt before leaving FUKA and reached staging area that night
23rd November 1942 – Ruweisat Ridge
111 Fd Regt received warning order to move to West of CHARING CROSS in two stages starting 27th November. CRA 50th Division inspected 111 Fd Regt.
30th November 1942 – Hagflet-el-Inaba
O.O. No.2 dated 29 November 1942 issued. Attached as Appendix 2. Regt. Left staging area at 0813 hrs. Reached staging area HAGFET-EL-INABA (596368). LAD stopped 4 miles back along track.