Rommel’s Withdrawal from El Alamein

The position at El Alamein had narrowed to a question of whether Erwin Rommel could keep his line intact. The British Eighth Army had pressed the German and Italian forces through the Second Battle of El Alamein, and Operation Supercharge had opened a breach. On 4 November, Allied armour threatened to encircle forward Axis units, while reports confirmed that the defences had collapsed. Rommel ordered a general withdrawal west along the coast, leaving the prepared positions behind despite Adolf Hitler’s instruction to stand firm.

The break had come after days of costly fighting. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery’s Operation Supercharge began on 2 November, with infantry trying to clear the remaining minefields and armour following through. The 15th Panzer Division inflicted heavy losses on the advancing British armour. Rommel, however, had little capacity to replace losses: after the 21st Panzer Division joined the fighting, he was left with only 35 operational tanks and little fuel or ammunition. He had already warned Hitler that a British breakthrough was inevitable and withdrawal was necessary.

The advance was not a clean rush through empty ground. British troops had to work through minefields, and Axis forces continued to resist. The British 10th Corps reached open ground, where Italian Ariete units, the German 90th Light Division and German headquarters units fought hard. That resistance exacted losses on the Axis side, but the formations could not restore the line. By then, the choice facing Rommel was not between holding a strong position and retreating. It was between withdrawal and the danger of his remaining forces being trapped.

The retreat began during the night toward Fuka. Montgomery ordered the British Eighth Army to pursue, but it did not follow that night. The withdrawal did not erase what the Eighth Army had achieved: the Axis had lost the battle and was moving west under pressure. For Rommel, the order to retreat also meant disobeying Hitler’s demand to hold. At El Alamein, the distance between that demand and the condition of his army had become impossible to ignore.