Showing The Battle of El Alamein: fortress in the sand by Fred Majdalany

On the night of October 23, 1942, nearly a thousand guns from British batteries opened fire on the German positions just west of the small Egyptian railway depot of El Alamein.

It was to prove one of the decisive battles of the Second World War. And a turning point for the British Army, which was finally able to inflict a defeat on the Germans.

Fought in the Egyptian desert in the autumn of 1942, El Alamein was a bloody battle of attrition in which the superior generalship and resources of the Allies finally overcame the Germans' brilliantly defended fortress position.

The battle was a contest between two of the finest generals of the war - the newly appointed General Bernard "Monty" Montgomery for the British and the legendary Field Marshal Erwin Rommel Montgomery for the Germans.

'The Battle of El Alamein: Fortress in the Sand' is the classic story of that contest.

It brilliantly combines vivid descriptions of the battle with expert assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. And it provides a compelling study of men at war, written by an expert historian who himself served on the battlefields of North Africa.

It has come to be regarded as one of the finest books on World War Two ever written.

"Majdalany recounts the battle with the clarity of full comprehension." - New Yorker

"A shrewd and valuable survey... The course of the battle is lucidly and succinctly described in its successive stages." - Times Literary Supplement

Fred Majdalany was an officer in the British Eighth Army during World War II. He is the author of 'Cassino: Portrait of a Battle.'

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