observer Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 One of the turning points of WW2 occured 70 years ago at El Alamein, where the famed Desert Fox was finally defeated in battle. Forces engaged: German - 50,000, tanks - 211, 900 - guns, planes - 150; Italians - 54,000, tanks- 278, guns-300, planes-200: British - 195,000, tanks - 1,029, guns - 2,311, planes - 530. The last of the veterans, most will be in their 90s now, are visiting war cemetaries in Egypt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry hayes Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 "The end of the beginning". Remember it vividly. Happy days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latchford Locks Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 "The end of the beginning". Remember it vividly. Happy days I don't remember it having not even been born then. But I remember when I first went to Spain on holiday in 1977 and returning to visit my local watering hole(St Augustines Club in Latchford) armed with handfuls of photos of sun sea and sand when this quiet voice sat near the darts board said " hey there young 'un I saw enough sun and sand in 1942 to do me a lifetime Rhyl will do for me now " I didn't read into it what must have been going through his mind when he said this, as he just lit up a ciggie had a drink of his pint and smiled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Jonathan Dimbleby did an interesting prog on Beeb 2 tonight, about the desert war culminating in Alamein. Think we owe it to Churchill's insistance that the Yanks adopted his grand strategy and launched Operation Torch following the victory at Alamein. Also of interest, was that it was Auchinleck to finally stopped Rommel at the 1st Alamein, only to be replaced by Monty who didn't attack until he had a numerical advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 I was just watching that programme. I thought it was very well done, with just photos instead of film footage to cover the battles. A lot of mistakes made by both sides, shows that things weren't as cut and dried as we are led to believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Watched it to, he also said the battle was not as important as Churchill had us believe Very good program Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Churchill and British miltary strategists historically, having a strong Navy, but weaker Army; have generally favoured the indirect approach; and memories of WW1 western front were probably still vivid. The Yanks, with relatively inexhaustible manpower and material, took a rather simplistic direct approach, which would have meant waiting for a build up in the UK, whilst not engaging the Germans on the ground for a year or two. Dieppe proved how unprepared we were to conduct a D-Day type invasion at that time. N/Africa and Italy gave the Allies time to acclimatise to warefare and perfect techniques that were eventually employed in the D-Day landings, and meanwhile tied up German forces, that could have been used on the Eastern front. So Alamein was an important turning point, just as, around the same period; were Stalingrad and Midway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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