October 23, 1942

Second Battle of El Alamein

Second Battle of El Alamein begins with the British Eighth Army's offensive

The Desert Fox was not there when the barrage opened: Georg Stumme commanded the Axis line that night, and he died the next day.

9:40 p.m., 23 October 1942

At 9:40 p.m. on 23 October 1942, approximately 900 Eighth Army guns opened a coordinated bombardment of German and Italian positions at El Alamein in Egypt. Accounts variously give about 880, 900 or 908, reflecting different counting conventions.

Twenty minutes later, Allied infantry advanced under a creeping barrage while engineers began opening marked routes through the Axis minefields — an estimated half a million mines.

Four infantry divisions attacked across approximately 16 kilometres of the northern front, while secondary operations farther south were meant to distract and hold Axis formations.

The infantry got through; the armour did not

The infantry captured most of its initial objectives. Delays, congestion and incomplete mine clearance then stopped X Corps's armoured formations from exploiting those gains as planned.

By the following morning the Eighth Army had penetrated portions of the Axis defences, but its tanks remained obstructed in or behind congested minefield lanes.

The Axis line had not been decisively broken, and Operation Lightfoot became a prolonged battle of attrition.

The absent commander

Bernard Montgomery had held off after halting the Axis at Alam el Halfa, waiting until the Eighth Army had accumulated and trained a materially superior force.

When the attack began, General Georg Stumme — not Erwin Rommel — commanded Panzerarmee Afrika. Rommel was receiving medical treatment in Germany and returned on 25 October.

Stumme died the day after the offensive opened.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

Contemporary and later accounts variously describe about 880, 900 or 908 guns in the opening barrage, reflecting different counting conventions. “Approximately 900” is the safest formulation.
The battle is conventionally dated October 23–November 4, although some national histories extend associated pursuit or contingent operations beyond November 4.