Today, El-Alamein is frequently visited as a memorial site for the fallen soldiers
El-Alamein, 106 km west of Alexandria, owes its fame to what was, until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the largest tank battle in history. In July 1942, the Allies under Britain’s Field Marshal Montgomery halted the German-Italian advance towards the Nile and – in British eyes, if not in those of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad – turned the course of the Second World War. Winston Churchill later wrote, not entirely accurately, “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat”. (See box, page .).
