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00:00This land was made for war.
00:18As glass resists the bite of vitriol,
00:21so this hard and calcined earth
00:23rejects the battle's hot corrosive impact.
00:30Here is no nubile, girlish land.
00:38No green and virginal countryside for war to violate.
00:43This land is hard, inviolable.
01:00It's hard, inviolable.
01:11This land is hard.
01:45Benito Mussolini declares war on France and Britain.
02:15Il tuo coraggio!
02:18Il tuo valore!
02:20Like some latter-day Roman consul, Mussolini longed for an African empire.
02:32Already he'd massacred the Abyssinians and subjugated the Libyans.
02:35Now he wanted more.
02:37We were certainly not ready to go to war in 1940.
02:48It was purely a political move.
02:50Mussolini, who felt that Hitler was winning too much too quickly,
02:55and that if he didn't sort of make some sort of gesture,
02:58take some sort of initiative,
03:00he would not be able to sit at the conference table.
03:05Mussolini's eyes were on Egypt,
03:19the Egypt of the Nile and the Suez Canal.
03:22In autumn 1940,
03:28he poured a quarter of a million troops into Egypt's neighbour, Libya,
03:32and another 300,000 into Ethiopia.
03:36Facing them in Egypt were just 30,000 British soldiers
03:39of the Western Desert Force.
03:40Facing them in Egypt.
04:10While Britain was at its height, Mussolini's men set out to conquer Egypt.
04:24Completely outnumbered, the British troops simply fell back.
04:28After four days, Mussolini's men were to reach Sidi Barani, 60 miles inside Egypt.
04:40There they would stop,
04:42still 300 miles short of Cairo.
04:44Looking back now, it seems an extraordinary thing,
04:50how we moved into Egypt,
04:52by sending out these enormous columns,
04:56not very well protected because we didn't have any tanks,
04:59and then each one of them settling down in a sort of fortified camp.
05:05This helped, of course, General O'Connor, I think, a lot.
05:16General O'Connor, the British commander,
05:18had used the pause to plan a counterattack.
05:21Detailants had a series of these fortified perimeter camps,
05:26and we decided that, as they were so far apart,
05:30they would be unable to support each other,
05:33and we moved our troops round
05:35to attack them from the rear,
05:38the way that their rations would come.
05:40O'Connor undertook an operation
05:51which was due to last about four days,
05:54which was the limit for the available tanks
05:56which were nearly worn out,
05:58and for our administration
05:59in terms of supplying water and fuel and ammunition.
06:04He achieved complete surprise,
06:07got behind the Italian positions at Sidi Barani,
06:09and in the morning,
06:11the Italian resistance collapsed.
06:35O'Connor's great achievement was
06:37that, by using captured vehicles
06:40and captured dumps of water and fuel,
06:44he was able to maintain this four-day battle
06:48into what became an offensive
06:50lasting over a period of weeks
06:52and resulted in taking him as far as Benghazi
06:55and, indeed, beyond to El Aguila.
06:57An area the size of England and France
07:02had been captured.
07:04For the British, it was an unbelievable victory
07:06and marvelously opportune,
07:08for back home, the Blitz was mounting in ferocity.
07:11For Mussolini,
07:12a mere six months after entering the war,
07:15the defeat meant the pricking
07:17of his imperial pretensions.
07:18Mussolini had said,
07:20I want 1,000 Italian dead
07:22to be able to sit at the conference table.
07:26And, of course, it cost many more than that.
07:28200,000 Italians were taken prisoner.
07:41They'd had enough.
07:54In many cases,
07:55they were very, very happy to surrender.
07:59To think that we were vastly outnumbered
08:01and to see one Tommy
08:03taking literally thousands
08:05back to the POW cage
08:08who was a great joy for us to see.
08:12We used to call them gentlemen.
08:14There go the gentlemen.
08:18Tripoli, Libya's capital,
08:19was in O'Connor's grasp.
08:22But Churchill withdrew
08:23the cream of O'Connor's forces
08:24to meet the Nazi threat in Greece.
08:27We couldn't do Greece
08:28and Tripoli at the same time.
08:30That's quite clear.
08:32I say we could have done Tripoli
08:34immediately
08:36and still left the options open for Greece.
08:40We lost an enormous opportunity
08:42to finish up North Africa
08:44and it was a fatal error
08:46to have gone to Greece.
08:48If we had advanced immediately,
08:51we could have pushed him out.
08:53I entirely blame myself
08:55for not having done it.
08:56I think it was quite inexcusable.
08:58I ought to have.
08:59February the 12th, 1941,
09:05Hitler comes to Mussolini's rescue.
09:10A small mobile force
09:12that had been hurriedly put together
09:13sets sail to Tripoli.
09:20The force that was soon to be renowned
09:22is the Africa Corps.
09:23The task of the German-African army
09:36was only to tie down
09:40as many British troops as possible
09:42and to cover the southern flank
09:46of Europe.
09:48We had never the intention
09:50to conquer Egypt
09:52or to cross the Suez Canal.
09:59Man Hitler chose to save Mussolini
10:02from further disaster
10:03had made his name in France
10:05the summer before.
10:07Urban Roman.
10:08In the port of Tripolis
10:17in February, March, 1941,
10:22Rommel told my friend,
10:25Lieutenant Hund, an engineer,
10:29Hund, here you can build me
10:32150 tanks.
10:34The man looked stupefied
10:35and Rommel told him,
10:37don't you have timber here
10:39in the harbour
10:40and canvas of sails
10:42to make 150 covers
10:44for Volkswagen?
10:46So you can give me 150 tanks
10:49and those tanks
10:49misled the British.
10:53Rommel, as yet,
10:55knew nothing about desert warfare.
10:57But he was bold and daring.
10:59Rommel was perhaps
11:01the ideal commander
11:02for this war theater.
11:03It was very wide in area
11:07but very limited
11:09in numbers of soldiers
11:11and so he could apply
11:13practically naval tactics.
11:16Towns and cities
11:18were very few
11:19and therefore
11:21we had no difficulties
11:23with the Arabian population.
11:26They didn't disturb us.
11:27The very same evening
11:32the Afrika Korps arrived.
11:34They were ordered
11:35to the front.
11:39Rommel believed
11:39an attack
11:40and quickly.
11:40On the last day of March
11:52when not all the troops
11:53promised him
11:53had even landed in Africa
11:55he took on the British
11:55at El Agela
11:56and in just 12 days
11:58pushed them back
11:59the 500 miles
12:01to Egypt.
12:02it was as if
12:04the bogeyman
12:05was just around the corner
12:06it was
12:07here comes Rommel
12:09or Rommel's coming
12:10down the desert fast
12:11get to hell out of it.
12:15Now
12:15it was the British turn
12:16to be taken prisoner
12:17in their thousands.
12:18Rommel told me
12:32to go ahead
12:33and we reached Delna
12:35picking up
12:36on our way
12:37English soldiers
12:39and generals
12:40who came in
12:40one by one.
12:42Amongst them
12:43the famous
12:44General O'Connor.
12:46It was miles behind
12:47our own front
12:48we drove into
12:49the one bit of a desert
12:50in which the Germans
12:51had sent a reconnaissance group.
12:54It was a great shock
12:55and I never thought
12:57it could ever happen
12:57to me.
12:59Very conceited perhaps.
13:02And so
13:02the Rommel legend
13:03took shape.
13:04By mid-April
13:05he had driven
13:06the British back
13:07where they had started
13:08but one pinprick
13:10remained
13:10to Brook.
13:11a hundred miles
13:18behind the front
13:19its Australian
13:20garrison held out
13:21denying Rommel
13:23a precious forward port
13:24for his supplies.
13:29As long as
13:30Tobruk remained
13:30in British hands
13:31it threatened
13:32Rommel's supply lines
13:33and deterred him
13:34from advancing
13:34any further
13:35into Egypt.
13:36unable to take
13:41Tobruk
13:42by direct assault
13:43Rommel
13:44prepared to besiege it
13:45the Luftwaffe
13:48two were called in
13:49over a thousand
14:10raids
14:10were mounted
14:11against a book.
14:19Right under
14:24Rommel's nose
14:24the Royal Navy
14:25replaced the
14:26Tobruk garrison
14:26with fresh troops
14:27Poles
14:28South Africans
14:29Indians
14:30British
14:31It was
14:33bare rations
14:34in Tobruk
14:35although one
14:36must thank
14:37the Navy
14:38and they did
14:39a wonderful job.
14:46In 1941
14:47the Royal Navy
14:48ruled the Mediterranean
14:50They had done so
14:51since giving
14:52the powerful
14:52Italian fleet
14:53a bloody nose
14:54of Taranto
14:54the previous autumn
14:55and so
14:57the British convoys
14:57could make their way
14:58through the Mediterranean
14:59relatively unmolested
15:00More importantly
15:03operating from Malta
15:04the Royal Navy
15:05could harass
15:06Rommel's own convoys
15:07passing from Italy
15:08to Tripoli
15:09the Royal Navy
15:13of the
15:28the
15:30The British supplies got through, while Rommel's didn't.
15:47Denied the petrol necessary for his panzers,
15:51Rommel couldn't advance any further into Egypt that summer.
15:55And worse, no matter how hard he tried,
15:58Rommel couldn't take Tobruk.
16:01It remained a thorn in his side and became too a symbol of British doggedness
16:04every bit as much as Churchill's bulldog face.
16:08We were pestered with glaring loudspeakers on the perimeter.
16:12We were called the self-imposed prisoners of Tobruk.
16:16Rommel's propaganda machine bellowed at us to give up.
16:22Well, we just took no notice.
16:24We said, we'll stick it out.
16:26We knew that they couldn't get in.
16:28There'd been no light at the end of the tunnel at all since the withdrawal from Dunkirk.
16:42I think for political and above all for morale reasons.
16:47The morale of the people of this country.
16:49It was terribly important to show that we could hold the Germans.
16:54The desert war for the moment was in stalemate.
16:57A time for taking stock of tactics as well as supplies.
17:01Rommel's tactics were more effective than those of the British,
17:04especially in his use of tanks.
17:05We had been trained to fire on the move to execute the sort of cavalry charge on tracks
17:15and handle armour in that way.
17:18The Germans had studied this problem much more than we between the wars.
17:22And also, of course, Rommel had experience from northern France
17:26and so had many of his tank crews.
17:28And they appreciated that a tank's best action against his enemy
17:33is to wait for him to come on sitting in a hull-hidden position
17:37if they're caught in the open to decoy the enemy
17:40onto their own anti-tank gun lines.
17:44Rommel's main anti-tank weapon was the Krupp-made 88mm.
17:58It had decimated the French tanks in May 1940
18:01and was doing the same now to the British tanks.
18:05It was effective at 1,000 yards and over.
18:10It could pinpoint you zero into you
18:12and it would brew a tank up easily.
18:18They could shoot at us
18:20before we could even get within striking distance.
18:23We couldn't hope to hit them
18:24with the two-pounders or the six-pounders.
18:30Rommel not only had the edge on the British in tactics and equipment,
18:34he also enjoyed the confidence of his political chief, Hitler.
18:38Wavell, his opposite number,
18:39was continually being pressured by Churchill
18:41to provide a victory.
18:42When he didn't, he was replaced by General Sir Claude Orkinlec.
18:47The Orc, in turn, appointed as his commander in the field,
18:51Lieutenant General Cunningham.
18:53Cunningham had defeated the Italians in East Africa
18:56and put back Hylus Elassi on the throne of Abyssinia.
18:59But he was an infantryman and knew nothing about tanks.
19:04The tank held the key to success in the desert,
19:07but British tanks left much to be desired.
19:10They were very poor mechanically.
19:13There was parts missing, parts not connected properly.
19:19Unlike the Germans, the British had few tank transporters,
19:22so their tanks had to move long distances
19:24as well as fight on their tracks.
19:29Every track is connected to the next track by a pin.
19:32A lot of moving parts,
19:34which in the desert was sometimes powdery,
19:38but hard, gritty sand.
19:40And, well, water is a lubricant,
19:44and the tank track is best suited to muddy conditions.
19:50To Churchill, the desert war had been too long instead.
19:54He needed victory,
19:55especially after the humiliating failures in Greece and Crete.
19:59No sooner were Cunningham and Orkinlec appointed
20:01than they too were pressured into an offensive.
20:10The British now had more equipment,
20:22but their tactics hadn't changed.
20:26Rommel might well have been tempted to echo Willington's words.
20:28They came on in the same old way,
20:30and we stopped them in the same old way.
20:37In just five days that November,
20:39Cunningham lost 300 tanks,
20:41two-thirds of his force,
20:43many through a mechanical failure.
20:45Said your track came off and jammed,
20:48well, if you were in action,
20:50you couldn't do anything about it but bail out.
20:53Then you couldn't recover the tank.
20:56At that time in the desert,
20:58we had no means of recovery of tanks.
21:01You'd always leave the battleground.
21:05Jerry's, they used to seem to stay there.
21:08We might have had a successful day,
21:11but Jerry's always seemed to deny us the battlefield.
21:15Their equipment had to come equally as far as ours,
21:18but they seemed to value it more
21:20and did every effort to recover their tanks
21:24as soon as it got dusk.
21:26By bluff and guile,
21:28Rommel convinced Cunningham he had lost the battle.
21:31But Orkinleck was determined to stay put.
21:34He sacked Cunningham,
21:35who wanted to withdraw,
21:37and appointed Ritchie.
21:38The gamble to stay and fight came off.
21:40When defeat stared the British in the face,
21:53the battle's balance swung dramatically their way
21:55as Rommel's panzers ran out of fuel.
21:59Tobruk was relieved.
22:01Rommel was forced to withdraw the 500 miles
22:03back to his starting point,
22:05and on Christmas Eve, 1941,
22:07Benghazi changed hands for the third time.
22:11But with Commonwealth forces again poised
22:13to push the Axis out of Africa,
22:15they were once more denuded of troops and equipment,
22:18this time for the Far East,
22:20where Japan's entry into the war
22:21threatened British bases in Burma and Malaya.
22:24an opportunity of gaining
22:27something which was rare and important
22:31in the Middle Eastern theatre
22:33was lost for the sake of
22:36something which was very doubtful
22:40and unlikely to pay off in the Far East.
22:47Within a couple of weeks,
22:49Rommel counter-attacked.
22:50Against the weakened British forces,
23:00he recaptured Benghazi
23:01and once more threatened Tobruk.
23:04He was stopped at Ghazala.
23:06Once again,
23:08it was stalemate.
23:09The peculiar conditions of the desert
23:31bred a comradeship
23:32that was unique in the whole war.
23:34To many,
23:35the desert war was a private war,
23:36the last to retain any pretense of chivalry.
23:46As soon as we stopped
23:48and there was a lull and a rest,
23:50he'd clear off a patch of the desert
23:52and say,
23:53right now we'll have a game of football.
23:56The sportsmanship showed at both sides
23:59football games were not interrupted
24:02by artillery fire during certain periods.
24:08The staple diet was biscuits and bully beef.
24:12We had bully beef fried,
24:15bully beef boiled,
24:17bully beef with dog biscuits.
24:19Oh, and dog biscuits.
24:21Dogs would need,
24:21and dogs would refuse to eat them.
24:23With food a problem
24:26and fresh water scarce,
24:27dysentery was a constant danger.
24:33The Germans invented a water can,
24:36which the envious English,
24:37after seeing theirs burst
24:38countless times
24:39on the bumpy desert surfaces,
24:41copied
24:41and christened the jerry can.
24:43We were rationed at one stage there
24:47on a cup of water a day
24:48to bath,
24:50shave.
24:51What often happened was
24:52the sections
24:53collected their ration,
24:55put it into a helmet,
24:57and each one shaved out of that.
24:59Above all,
25:00it was hot.
25:02Very,
25:02very,
25:03very hot.
25:06It was so hot
25:06you could
25:07throw an egg on the mud guard.
25:10Well,
25:10that's literally true.
25:11you could
25:12break an egg on the outside.
25:13It was so hot
25:14it would sizzle.
25:20The fly
25:20was perhaps
25:21the desert soldier's
25:22greatest scourge,
25:24not just as a nuisance,
25:25but as a carrier of disease.
25:27Flies were indifferent,
25:28of course,
25:29as to which side they played.
25:31At one stage there,
25:31there were competitions
25:32as to who killed
25:33the most flies.
25:35The flies
25:36were that fattened
25:38with living on the dead.
25:41that every time
25:42you killed them,
25:43the smell got into you
25:45and caused stomach upsets.
25:46And we had orders
25:47from division headquarters
25:48to cut out this business
25:50of killing the flies.
25:51We just had to let them go.
25:52I think one fly
25:58has
25:59within one year
26:00nine million children.
26:05There was two,
26:06the occasional scorpion
26:07and viper.
26:09And when the wind blew,
26:10the sand and dust
26:11got in everywhere.
26:12The fine dust
26:19used to clog up everything.
26:22The jets
26:22would clog up
26:23in the carburettors.
26:25Your watches
26:26would stop.
26:27It created problems
26:28with our intestines.
26:30It gives a form of diarrhoea
26:31which is very severe
26:33because of this sand
26:34passing through.
26:34You had,
26:36for instance,
26:37to go from your quarters
26:38to the latrine
26:39and you had
26:41literally to do it
26:42with a march compass.
26:44There are cases
26:45where soldiers
26:46did not return
26:48when they had forgotten
26:48their march compass.
26:52In the sandstorm,
26:53of course,
26:54the fighting stopped
26:55which was enjoyed
26:56at the beginning.
26:58After three days,
26:59you think
27:00the better
27:01the sandstorm stops
27:02and the fighting
27:03starts again.
27:07Ritchie planned
27:07an offensive
27:08for the end of May
27:09with his new
27:10ground tanks
27:11from America.
27:12But Rommel,
27:12as usual,
27:13got in first.
27:15Ritchie had learned
27:16little from
27:17previous mistakes.
27:18Like the Italians,
27:19he had set up
27:20a series of fortified
27:21camps and laid
27:22mines galore.
27:24But just as a
27:24conrad done
27:25with the Italians,
27:26Rommel simply
27:27went round
27:27the open flank.
27:30We were down
27:31south just
27:32in front
27:33of Birakim
27:34and during
27:35the morning
27:35we'd seen
27:36this dust
27:37going up
27:38from where
27:38Jerry was.
27:40He was coming
27:41through where
27:42the south
27:42arm of div were.
27:44It was like
27:45a fox in a hen
27:46coop.
27:47Everybody dashed
27:47and bailed
27:48all over the place.
27:49Rich's new tanks
28:12were proving
28:13a disappointment.
28:15Once again,
28:16the British armour
28:17was outmaneuvered.
28:19The Battle of
28:19Gazala
28:20was Rommel's.
28:34The way was now
28:35open to the prize
28:36that had eluded
28:37Rommel the previous
28:37summer,
28:38the prize that
28:39Churchill for one
28:40had determined
28:40ever to deny him
28:41Tobruk.
28:51Tobruk's fortifications
28:53had been neglected.
28:55They were no longer
28:55as formidable
28:56as they had been
28:57the previous summer.
28:58Berlin Radio
29:25broadcasts the news
29:27of Tobruk's surrender.
29:28For Churchill,
29:29it was a particularly
29:30dark moment.
29:31For Rommel,
29:32the peak of his career
29:32and a grateful
29:33Fuhrer made him
29:34field marshal.
29:43The British
29:44now fell back
29:45into Egypt
29:46further than
29:47ever before.
29:49I've never seen
29:50this chaos.
29:51It looked at me.
29:52You'd never be able
29:53to save a situation.
29:54I've never seen
29:55that desert road
29:56crammed with
29:57every sort of vehicle,
29:59every unit muddled up,
30:01hickledy-pickledy.
30:02No one knew
30:03what was going on.
30:05And luckily,
30:07our air force
30:07was stronger
30:08than the enemies
30:08at that time.
30:09Otherwise,
30:10I think we'd be
30:10routed.
30:11The state of despair
30:16had to be masked,
30:18and it was masked
30:19in a typically
30:20British way
30:21by nonchalance.
30:23When Rommel
30:24was expected
30:25in Cairo
30:26that evening,
30:27Lord Killeur,
30:28my ambassador,
30:29instantly gave
30:30dinner for 80 people
30:31at the Muhammad
30:32Alley Club
30:33and said,
30:34well,
30:34when he comes down,
30:35he'll know
30:36where to find us.
30:39Past Mirza Matrou,
30:41past Martin Bagouche,
30:42past Fouca,
30:43past Darbo,
30:45the British fell back
30:46until on June
30:47the 30th, 1942,
30:50they reached
30:50a railway halt
30:51just 60 miles
30:52from Alexandria,
30:54El Alamein.
30:55It was no chance
31:10choice of Orkinlegs
31:11that the decisive
31:12battle for Egypt
31:13should be fought
31:14here at El Alamein.
31:24This bit of desert
31:25was not like any other
31:26over which the war
31:27had been fought
31:27these last two years.
31:28As always,
31:29the sea was to the north,
31:31but here,
31:32just 40 miles inland,
31:34was another sea,
31:36the sunken sea
31:37of quicksand
31:38and salt marsh,
31:40impassable to tanks,
31:43the Katara Depression.
31:48Until now,
31:49the fluid strategy
31:50of desert warfare
31:50had sprung
31:51from there being
31:52always an open flank,
31:53but at El Alamein,
31:55Rommel would have to
31:56think of something
31:57different.
32:02Orkinleg prepared
32:03for the final battle
32:04for Egypt,
32:05for after Tobruk,
32:06he had sacked Ritchie
32:07and taken command
32:09of the Eighth Army
32:09himself.
32:10but Churchill
32:15was already planning
32:16to sack him, too.
32:19Rommel didn't wait
32:19for Churchill's decision.
32:21He threw his tired troops
32:23into a last,
32:24desperate attempt
32:24to take Egypt.
32:25In July,
32:34at perhaps the most
32:34decisive battle
32:35of the Desert Wall,
32:37Orkinleg halted him.
32:40It was a
32:41rightfully important battle,
32:43and it was touch-and-go
32:45that we might have lost
32:46a whole of the Middle East
32:47base.
32:47Churchill went to
33:00see for himself
33:00in August
33:01the troops' morale.
33:04Tobruk's fall
33:04had exasperated him,
33:06but he was heartened
33:06by the reception
33:07he got from the
33:08Eighth Army.
33:10He had already
33:10decided to appoint
33:11Alexander
33:12in place of Orkinleg.
33:14The new
33:15Eighth Army commander
33:16was to be Montgomery,
33:17although Montgomery
33:18had not set foot
33:19in the Desert
33:19during the war.
33:21When Montgomery
33:22came,
33:22we were a bit
33:23apprehensive about him
33:24because we'd never
33:26seen this man
33:27who had white knees
33:28and what have you.
33:30In the presence
33:30of your PM,
33:31suddenly,
33:32it was a very
33:33tonic thing.
33:34He was wearing
33:35a siren suit,
33:36smoking a men's cigar,
33:37but he had WC
33:38on his slippers.
33:39He was wearing
33:40those old-fashioned
33:40dancing pumps
33:41that you used to wear
33:42in those days
33:43with dinner jackets,
33:44with W on one foot,
33:45and C on the other.
33:48And he gave us
33:49a very good pep talk.
34:06For Rommel,
34:07the laws of desert warfare
34:08now began to work
34:09against him.
34:11The further the advance,
34:12the longer the supply line.
34:13I think we had
34:17crossed the Rubicon
34:19like Caesar
34:20when we went
34:22to Egypt.
34:25The eyes of Hitler
34:26were directed
34:28every day
34:29to the Russian front,
34:31the deciding front.
34:33And our role
34:34was not so important.
34:37He was content
34:39if we had
34:40no difficulties,
34:42but he was not
34:43able
34:43to guarantee
34:45that supplies
34:47came
34:48to North African
34:50ports.
34:59Only one in four
35:00of Rommel's supply
35:01ships
35:01ever got through.
35:03His solution,
35:04late in the day,
35:05crushed Malta.
35:06Goering's Luftwaffe
35:20believed it could
35:21annihilate the island
35:22single-handed.
35:23Stukas,
35:48Heinkels,
35:48Junkers,
35:49Dorniers,
35:50Messerschmitts,
35:51day in,
35:51day out,
35:52hundreds at a time.
35:53were ordered
35:53against the island.
35:55Malta became
35:56the most bombed
35:56place on earth.
35:57The End
36:27Walter held out.
36:40Equally bad for Rommel, the Desert Air Force could now operate from its home bases along the Nile, just a hundred miles behind the line.
36:48In the desert, the fighting is characterized by the opposition of tanks in large quantities, of artillery, of air support.
37:03Air support, for instance, didn't play a considerable role in Russia, where troops had enough cover.
37:14In Africa, air superiority was all decisive.
37:20Montgomery had air superiority.
37:27Desperately short of fuel, Rommel's convoys had to run the gauntlet at the 1,400 miles from its main base at Tripoli, whereas Montgomery was only 60 miles from his at Alexandrie.
37:37The distance from the ports Benghazi, Tripolis, and perhaps Topo had become too big.
37:46During the jigsaws up and down the desert, when we pushed Rommel back, we used to accuse him of putting oil in the wells, which we thought was really a dirty trick.
37:59And then when we came back down, he would blame us for putting oil in the water.
38:03And now it seems that all the time, it was the oil wells below the ground, seeping through into the water wells.
38:13In September, the morale of the Afrika Korps was dealt a blow when Rommel fell ill.
38:17Hitler ordered him home.
38:18But his men were left behind under the desert sun for a second year.
38:29When you are in the desert, do you feel like a man on the moon would feel you are alone with the universe?
38:34For the men of the Afrika Korps, far from home, there was no question of leave.
38:42Only the certainty that sooner or later, the British would attack them.
38:46There was the homesickness of the soldier who would have preferred to be at home and not at war.
38:51It was perhaps no accident that the desert campaign produced the most memorable song of the Second World War.
39:10Lily Marlene was a piece of our home.
39:14Lily Marlene became equally popular with the British.
39:28You were always in touch with home.
39:31We heard the news.
39:33And, of course, we heard the opposition's news.
39:36A witness underneath the lamppost by the Barrett Gate.
39:44For the British, home comforts were close at hand in Cairo.
39:55Just the place for a spot of leave with its bars, bazaars and other distractions.
40:01They used to take your money, yes.
40:18I should say 75% of them, if they could find another woman, they'd have her.
40:38It really was weird when you think of the whole of Europe blacked out and in darkness and despair, you know.
40:45Like in Cairo, seething with light, you rang up people, you went out to dinner, you had a hot bath and a whiskey, and so on.
40:52On Monday morning, you'll be back in the line.
40:58Montgomery saw his main task as raising the troops' morale.
41:01He was the first British commander to project himself like an American politician.
41:06Pressmen, and particularly press photographers, kept at arm's length by Wavell and Orkinlet, now found themselves welcome.
41:12He immediately, as quick as possible, started going round all the formations of the 8th Army and gathering people round to talk to them.
41:22And he used also the press, the radio and gimmicks, such as his hat.
41:28They wanted something to be able to identify themselves with and to look at.
41:35Something other than the strict uniform.
41:38It really was remarkable.
41:46In three or four days, there was a completely different atmosphere in the 8th Army, and there was a feeling of confidence.
41:52He told us that the bad old days were over, and he was now determined there was going to be success.
41:59He said, now the only order is everyone stays where they are and fights where they are and dies where they are.
42:08Montgomery saw to it that his army had the very latest weapons.
42:20Constantly pressed by Churchill to take the offensive, Monty, as he was soon known, was not going to be rushed.
42:26He was determined, as he put it, to have everyone tough and hard for the coming battle.
42:31Because its first few hours were going to be dominated by the mine, the Germans had laid well over half a million on them,
42:40the offensive was given the code name Operation Lightfoot.
42:43Sick joke, if ever there was one.
42:47An electronic mine detector had been devised for use at Alamein, but many were found to be faulty on arrival,
42:52and so most of the detecting had to be done in the old way, by men prodding the ground with bayonets and lifting the mines by hand.
42:59The German minefields at Alamein were five miles deep.
43:15To assault them, Montgomery had assembled a quarter of a million troops.
43:21British, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, South Africans, Greeks, Poles, Czechs, and Free French.
43:30Twice as many men as Rommel had.
43:33Nothing was being left to chance.
43:36We were fully trained.
43:38We were really confident.
43:39Every single solitary man knew exactly what he had to do.
43:47Everything was in your fiver.
43:50We had no fear of such.
43:53It's an old headache, you know.
43:54It never happened to you personally, you think.
43:59October the 23rd, 1942.
44:03In the darkening desert, 1100 tanks and 1000 guns moved into position.
44:08I was with my battalion laying mines in front of our own positions.
44:17And the battle of Alamein started by seeing the whole horizon on fire.
44:24Yeah, well, a lot of people think that Alamein was a big barrage and everybody waiting behind,
44:46queuing up, ready to go once the barrage finished.
44:49But it wasn't like that at all.
44:51It was some bloody fighting there, I believe, were you?
44:54We moved off before the barrage.
44:58We were allowed a walking pace.
45:00That artillery fell in front of us.
45:03In the morning, we were disappointed, to say the least.
45:12When the tanks should have passed us, they hadn't arrived.
45:16Nobody had arrived.
45:22By the time the sappers got the mines up and there was a road made,
45:27the Germans realised the reason and they pinpointed that opening.
45:37There was all the uncertainty that the ground was going to erupt underneath you.
45:42And you forget about running through the minefield when a shell suddenly drops this side of you or that side of you.
45:47A machine gun fire opens up, a mortar fire.
45:50There were squeals, shouts.
45:51It was a battle of attrition.
45:54It was fought in a way, and rightly in a way,
45:58in which you had to continue the offensive
46:03until you had broken the enemy's power and resistance.
46:06And this does take time.
46:09If infantry gets on the objective, destroys the anti-tank gun,
46:13and the minefields are cleared,
46:14then the tank can come forward and exploit the situation.
46:17But until that happens, no success, no tanks.
46:22Montgomery lost 200 tanks in the first two days,
46:26as many as the Germans had started with.
46:29Rommel, now back in Africa,
46:31though clearly far from well, immediately counter-attacked.
46:34Angry his panzers had not done so
46:36when the British had been bogged down in the minefields.
46:39It was too late.
46:40Rommel was thrown back, with losses he could ill afford.
46:49Casualties were heavy on both sides.
47:02They really hung on, see?
47:04It was really stubborn.
47:05When we finished,
47:09then we realised the casualties we'd left behind.
47:13You've kept saying to yourself,
47:15it won't happen to me, here, catch it.
47:17I won't.
47:18The Lord's when it dawned on us,
47:19one day you won't always get away with it, lad.
47:21It was a killing match,
47:33as Monty had predicted.
47:34A messy, horrid, killing match.
47:38A First World War battle,
47:40fought with Second World War weapons.
47:41The Battle of Attrition was going Montgomery's way.
47:52The moment had come for him to let loose his armour.
47:55800 tanks, mostly Shermans,
48:16the latest and best tank from America,
48:18were thrown against the Germans and Italians.
48:21And Rommel had less than 100 tanks.
48:25Again, the fighting was bitter.
48:34Rommel began to yield a little.
48:51For two days more, the battle raged.
48:54It was the biggest tank battle of the Desert War.
48:59Rommel was now down to only 35 tanks,
49:03compared with Montgomery's 600.
49:07Just when he was thinking of slipping away
49:09to hold a line 60 miles back,
49:11Hitler ordered him to stay.
49:12It's a particularly nasty form of ending one's days
49:22if one is trapped in a tank
49:24and the tank brews up and is on fire.
49:28You will never lose the awfulness
49:32or screams of men trying to get out.
49:47The British armour was through,
49:53and by the afternoon of November the 4th,
49:56the twelfth day of the battle,
49:58Rommel was in full retreat.
50:00Thousands of Italians were left behind.
50:09The Germans had pinched their transport.
50:12Rommel's deputy, Fontoma, was captured too.
50:14Alexander signaled Churchill to ring out the victory bells,
50:26which Winston did.
50:27The first time church bells had been rung in Britain
50:30since Dunkirk.
50:31Heavy rain fell on November the 6th
50:39to impede both pursuit and pursuer.
50:42Montgomery's corps commanders were all for rushing ahead
50:44to trap Rommel before he could reorganise.
50:47But Monte was not going to risk being trapped himself.
50:52Montgomery was very conscious
50:55that we had already been twice up and twice back,
50:59and he was determined not to be pushed back
51:02for a third time.
51:07The Desert Air Force thought to it
51:08that Rommel's retreat was not without incident.
51:15He had nowhere to run.
51:17All he could do was run into the sand.
51:19See, this is where the Desert Warfare
51:20was something on its own.
51:22You just sat there, or you moved out there,
51:25and you were exposed to everything.
51:29Past Merza Matru, past Sidi Barani.
51:50Through half-fire pass, Rommel was pushed back,
51:53turning to fight a little every day.
51:54On November the 13th, to Churchill's great joy,
52:02Tobruk was retaken.
52:04A week later, it was Benghazi's turn
52:06to change hands for the fifth and positively final time.
52:10In mid-January of 1943, Tripoli fell.
52:23The prize that had eluded O'Connor two years before.
52:33Last, the British people had something really to cheer about.
52:37And Churchill, the big victory he'd been hoping for
52:41before America would dominate the war.
52:47You have altered the fate of the war
52:49in the most remarkable way.
52:52I must tell you that
52:54your fame,
52:57the fame of the Desert Army,
53:00has spread throughout the world.
53:02Ah, this is not the end.
53:11It is not even the beginning
53:12of the end.
53:15But it is perhaps
53:17the end of the beginning.
53:18The End of the Spring
53:24THE END
53:54THE END
54:24THE END
54:26THE END
54:28THE END
54:30THE END
54:32THE END
54:34THE END
54:40THE END
54:42THE END
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