Battle of Alam el Halfa order of battle explained

This is the order of battle for the Battle of Alam el Halfa, a World War II battle between the British Commonwealth and the Axis Powers of Germany and Italy in North Africa between 30 August and 5 September 1942.[1] The forces were the Eighth Army (British and New Zealand units) and the Panzer Armee Afrika (German and Italian units)

Allied forces

Eighth Army

Lieutenant-general Bernard MontgomeryXIII Corps

Lieutenant-general Brian Horrocks

Axis forces

Panzerarmee Afrika

Generalfeldmarschall Erwin RommelDeutsches Afrika Korps

Generalleutnant Walther Nehring (wounded in an air attack on 31 August and replaced by Rommel's chief-of-staff oberst Fritz Bayerlein)[2]

Italian XX Motorised Corps

Major general Giuseppe De Stefanis

Italian X Corps

Lieutenant general Federico Ferrari Orsi

Tanks in use by both sides

The Deutsches Africa Korps had 229 German and 243 Italian tanks[3] The Germans had 27 of the Panzer IV variant withthe long-barreled gun 75mm gun. This longer barrelled gun gave the Mark IV superior range than the Allied tanks.A total of 472.

The Allies had 500 tanks that would see action during this battle. 170 of these were M3 Grant medium tanks, the best tank the Allies had access to at this time. The remaining tanks were made up of M3 Stuart light tanks, Crusader Mk II cruiser tanks and Valentine infantry tanks.A total of 500.

References

Notes and References

  1. Buffetaut pp. 85–86
  2. Bungay p. 136
  3. Panzer Battles by MAJ.GEN.F.W.VON MELLENTH1N