The El Alamein line

Was there not a German radio unit too.?So i understand.?

 

Hy lwd,up to what date did the Germans get their info.?does anyone know.?,cheers.

 

Colonel Bonner Fellers and recce unit 621 was German wireless unit you want?

 

There is some info here: German Radio Intelligence by Lieutenant-General Albert Praun
but I didn't see any dates.
This has a fair amount more details on it
Intercepted Communications for Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
including:

According to page 3 of the above the conduit was cut on 29 June 1942

 

Thanks for the links gents.They made fascinating reading.

 

Wilts, you'll find much on fellers and the German Sig unit in John Hermans Alamein...A War Without Hate.

 

Top book.
Not the most conventional Military History (no bad thing), but one of the most 'readable' books on the Desert war I've seen. Did it over a weekend as the style is so engaging.

~A

 

Just got a copy of Monty's own memoires after all these years. Interesting comparing the two at times. Both fall into the not the most conventional military history catagory. Sometimes its good to get away from the tanks poopy..

 

Forgive me if I missed it reading those links,but i recall reading about an Australian unit(up on the coastal sector),that attacked and captured a German zigs unit in autumn 1942.?,cheers.

 

Never have I cross-referenced more than when reading any Monty-memoir...
Bless 'im.

Say what you like though, you can't 'do' the Desert War (or pretty much any other major arena in which the Commonwealth were engaged) without getting the great man's viewpoints in, no matter how... partial.

 

Too true. And cross referencing from war without hate even gave me names I'd been searching for for ages from Urquharts Arnhem book. Neither he or Monty were into game of naming names but these later works go for it.

 

I guess I'll get a copy of'War Without Hate'then,cheers.

 

Wilts I'll get the book out and come back on the Aussi unit for you. And cheers for the likes mate. Glad to see your still kicking dust about.

 

Well German Radio Intelligence by Lieutenant-General Albert Praun
States

Doesn't give the specific British unit however.
Looking at Intercepted Communications for Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Page 3
it states

In reference to our earlier converstaion the closing lines of the last page of that document are:

 

And there is a reference in a war without hate to Eisenhower who later in the war at a cocktail session when the name of fellers was brought up said something along the lines of dont mention that guys name in my presence or some such....

 

Cant find individual unit that overun em Wilts. Only similar to what lwd says sorry that it was Aussies. One last interesting thing...Sadat..Future leader of Egypt was found to be involved in the German Int mallarky and was arrested. Interesting stuff.

 

The thing about the El Alamein Defensive line that made it good was it was hard to outflank. Heaving the Mediterranean on one side and the Quattara Depression on the other, it was difficult, if not impossible for Romeel to outflank. The boxed defense Idea had been tried before by the British earlier in North Africa with disasterous results, becuase Rommel out flanked them, and just chewed up the uprepared troops in the boxes. This time it was impossible, with Rommel being at the end of an aprroximately 200 mile supply line his fuel was low, so he wouldn't have been able to go the hundreds of miles necessay to outflank the lin at El Alamein.

 

Yes Centurion it was a natural bottleneck with two flanks unpassable to armour, obviously the med to the north and the depression to the south. If you look at a map of the battle (Rommel’s attempt to break through Sept/Aug 1942) you see that Rommel changes nothing, his tactics are very similar to his previous attacks with a long right hook trying to encircle the defences to the north and forcing a withdrawal, trouble was that with only 200 German (about half of them specials, 74 Mk III Ausf J and 27 Mk IV F2s) and 240 Italian Tanks plus shortages in both manpower, ammunition and fuel, that option only had one chance to break through or fail.

Yan.


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Credit does need to be given to Auchinleck as he was the one that decided to pull the forces back to El-Alamein line. I believe it was Ritchie that wanted to make a stand at the Mutrah line that would have almost doubled the area to defend. Had Auchinleck not removed Ritchie and put in place a fighting retreat while defenses were prepared at El Alamein I don't see Monty of having as much to work with.

 

What I do not get is Rommel's pursuit then decision to stand , fortify and defend his position at Alamein for almost four months. It is complately illogical for Panzer Army to defend a position at the end of a 2200 km long supply line which is vulnerable to British attacks. Couldn't he read a map ? Rommel certainly was not a genius as he was portrayed. He took the decision to march on Nile (a wrong one in light of cancelling Malta invasion ) because of 8th Army's momentary weakness after fall of Tobruk and its decimation in May 1942 battles. In August-September once he was repulsed at Alam El Halfa Rommel just put his army to an indefensible position and hold a worthless ground until 8th Army tanks tore up Axis defences on 4th November. Once he failed in First Battle of Alamein in July why did not he retreat ?