ALAMEIN, EL-

coastal town in northwestern Egypt, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Alexandria, that was the site of two major battles between British and Axis forces in 1942 during World War II. El-Alamein is the seaward (northern) end of a 40-mile-wide bottleneck that is flanked on the south by the impassable Qattara Depression. This crucial east-west corridor became a vital defensive line held by the British army, and marked the farthest point of penetration by German forces into Egypt. After the British had inflicted severe defeats on the Italian forces in North Africa, the German general Erwin Rommel was chosen commander of Axis forces in Libya (February 1941). In January 1942 his forces started a new drive eastward along the North African coast to seize the Suez Canal. After losing Banghazi in January, the British held the Germans in check until May. Then the German and Italian forces were able to destroy most of the British tank force, take Tobruk, and move eastward into Egypt, reaching the British defenses at El-Alamein (Al-'Alamayn) on June 30, 1942. Rommel attacked this line on July 1, but the next day the British commander, General Claude Auchinleck, counterattacked, and a battle of attrition developed. By mid-July Rommel was still at El-Alamein, blocked, and had even been thrown on the defensive, thus ending the first engagement. The British had stopped his drive to overrun Egypt and seize the canal. Both sides built up their forces in the ensuing pause, but the British, with more secure supply lines across the Mediterranean, were able to reinforce their army to much greater effect. Equally importantly, General Harold Alexander took command of the British troops in this theatre in August, and General Bernard L. Montgomery was named his field commander. On Oct. 23, 1942, the British 8th Army started a devastating attack from El-Alamein. Rommel's forcesvastly outnumbered, with fewer than 80,000 against the 230,000 Britishmanaged to contain the the British attacks, but these battles of attrition left them fatally weakened. On November 4 Rommel ordered a retreat, and by November 6 the British had wound up the second battle and driven the Germans westward from Egypt back into Libya.