All Episodes
Displaying 81 - 100 of 261 in total
Second El Alamein: Episode 2 — The Last Line in Egypt
El Alamein mattered because geography finally gave the Eighth Army a place where Rommel could not easily repeat his wide desert outflanking maneuvers. With the Mediter...
Second El Alamein: Episode 3 — Lessons of July
Before the famous October victory, the Eighth Army learned hard lessons in the July fighting around Ruweisat Ridge and Miteiriya Ridge. These costly battles showed tha...
Second El Alamein: Episode 4 — Montgomery Arrives
Bernard Montgomery’s arrival in August 1942 changed the atmosphere of the Eighth Army, but not because one commander magically solved the desert war. This episode exam...
Second El Alamein: Episode 5 — Alam Halfa
Alam Halfa was Rommel’s last major attempt to break through the El Alamein position before the October offensive, and it became a crucial rehearsal for Montgomery’s me...
Second El Alamein: Episode 6 — Shermans, Grants, and 88s
The hardware of El Alamein mattered, but the battle was never a simple contest of which tank was better. This episode explores the American-built Grant and Sherman tan...
Second El Alamein: Episode 7 — Ultra, Fellers, and Seebohm
The intelligence war around El Alamein shaped real battlefield decisions long before the artillery opened fire. This episode traces Rommel’s earlier advantages from co...
Second El Alamein: Episode 8 — Operation Bertram
Operation Bertram was the deception plan that helped hide Montgomery’s true preparations for Second El Alamein. Dummy tanks, disguised vehicles, false pipelines, contr...
Second El Alamein: Episode 9 — The Army Montgomery Built
By October 1942, the Eighth Army had been transformed into a multinational force built for one decisive offensive. British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Ind...
Second El Alamein: Episode 10 — The Plan Called Lightfoot
Operation Lightfoot was Montgomery’s opening design for breaking into the Axis defensive system at El Alamein. Infantry would advance first through the minefields, eng...
Second El Alamein: Episode 11 — 23 October
The night of 23 October 1942 opened Second El Alamein with a massive artillery barrage and the first infantry advances into the Axis line. What began as a dramatic dis...
Second El Alamein: Episode 12 — The Devil’s Gardens
The Devil’s Gardens were the deep Axis minefields that turned Second El Alamein from a planned breakthrough into a slow, dangerous fight for movement itself. Mines, wi...
Second El Alamein: Episode 13 — Break-In Without Breakthrough
The early days of Second El Alamein produced a frustrating reality: the Eighth Army had broken into the Axis position but had not broken through it. Infantry captured ...
Second El Alamein: Episode 14 — Crumbling
Montgomery’s “crumbling” phase was the deliberate attempt to wear down the Axis line after the initial break-in failed to produce a clean armored breakthrough. Instead...
Second El Alamein: Episode 15 — The Axis Counterblow
The Axis counterattacks at El Alamein proved that Rommel’s army was under pressure but far from helpless. German and Italian forces used armor, anti-tank guns, artille...
Second El Alamein: Episode 16 — Australians to the Coast
The Australian attacks in the northern sector helped transform El Alamein from a stalled break-in into a wider operational crisis for Rommel. The 9th Australian Divisi...
Second El Alamein: Episode 17 — Trig 29
Trig 29 was a modest piece of high ground in the northern El Alamein battlefield, but in the desert even small rises could control observation, artillery fire, and mov...
Second El Alamein: Episode 18 — The Fig Orchard
The Fig Orchard was one of the deceptively named points in the northern El Alamein sector where the Australian advance became close, costly, and intensely local. This ...
Second El Alamein: Episode 19 — The Saucer and the Blockhouse
The Saucer and the Blockhouse reveal the most human side of El Alamein’s northern fighting. Around a shallow exposed pocket near the railway, Australian troops fought ...
Second El Alamein: Episode 20 — Hold On One More Day
By the end of October 1942, the northern sector of El Alamein had become a battle of endurance. Australian units that had already fought through Trig 29, the Fig Orcha...
Second El Alamein: Episode 21 — Supercharge
Operation Supercharge was Montgomery’s decisive plan change after the original offensive bogged down inside the Axis defensive system. Launched on the night of 1–2 Nov...
