Atlas of Battles

battle, landmark, interwar and Second World War

Second Battle of El Alamein

Second Battle of El Alamein was a battle fought on 23 October 1942 at El Alamein, in what is now Egypt; it lasted 19 days. It was part of Battles of El Alamein. The recorded result: Allied victory.

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Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army in North Africa, in the turret of his Grant command tank at El Alamein, 5 November 1942. Lieutenant General B L Montgomery, Ge
Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army in North Africa, in the turret of his Grant command tank at El Alamein, 5 November 1942. Lieutenant General B L Montgomery, Ge. No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Keating G (Capt), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fought23 October 1942lasted 19 days
WhereEl Alamein, Egypt30.841N, 28.943E
OutcomeAllied victory
Part ofBattles of El Alamein

Where it sits in Battles of El Alamein

First Battle of El Alamein, 1942Second Battle of El Alamein, 1942Outpost Snipe, 194219421942Second Battle of El Alamein, 1942
3 placed engagements of Battles of El Alamein in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date23 October 1942
to 11 November 1942
PlaceEl Alamein, Egypt
30.841N, 28.943E
KindBattle, interwar and Second World War
Second Battle of El AlameinSecond Battle of El AlameinFirst Battle of El AlameinOutpost SnipeBattle of Alam el HalfaRaid on AlexandriaSiege of AlexandriaOutpost SnipeRaid on AlexandriaSiege of AlexandriaDamanhûrRashidMatruhEl Daba100 km30.841N, 28.943E
The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

The ground today

Relief of the ground around the site of Second Battle of El Alamein
Relief within about 10.0 km of the site, contours every 5 m. Copernicus DEM GLO-30, ESA.
Satellite view of the site of Second Battle of El Alamein today
The same ground from Sentinel-2 on 2024-05-30. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024.

The recorded site stands at about 23 m; within 10.0 km the ground runs from -4 to 32 m, 36 m of relief, flat country and today it is 47% bare ground, 30% built-up, 18% water.

bare ground: 47%built-up: 30%water: 18%grassland: 2%bare ground 47%built-up 30%water 18%grassland 2%
west to east, 10.0 km0 to 22 mnorth to south, 10.0 km0 to 23 m
Elevation from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (ESA, Airbus); land cover from ESA WorldCover 2021 (CC BY 4.0), within about 5 km of the recorded site. Computed, not recorded.

Nearest engagements

In the same war

Elsewhere in 1942

Combat data (CDB90)

Attacker: BR 8TH ARMYDefender: GER & IT PZ ARMY
Strength211,00097,000
Casualties4,420 (2.1%)7,800 (8.0%)
Mission accomplishment, 1 to 1095
Outcomeattacker won
Duration2 days
Front width61 km61 km
Attacker advanced15 km

From the US Army Concepts Analysis Agency Database of Battles (CDB90, battle 390), public domain, in the CC0 tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold. Figures are the database's estimates, compiled in 1990 from published histories, and may differ from the Wikipedia infobox above.

Second Battle of El Alamein is one of 2,997 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 110 in present-day Egypt.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q153376, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Second Battle of El Alamein, revision 1384825794, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.