El Alamein - Fifty Years On
This article is extracted from DAVAR of December 1992.
The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein which commenced 23rd October 1942. The commemoration was held at the British war cemetery at El Alamein on the north Egyptian coast. Almost adjoining the British cemetery was the German war cemetery where the same battle was commemorated.
The TIMES of 26th October 1992 described the event as follows:
A varied cast, including the Duke of Kent, John Major (prime Minister), Sir Malcolm Rivkind (Defence Secretary), Sir Harry Secombe (Welsh stage ''celebrity''), 2000 veterans, and Mohammed, purveyor of overpriced commemorative T-shirts, gathered under the cruel desert sun yesterday to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein. (I was one of the veterans).
The game of ''If...'' is endless and usually futile. But if, 50 years ago, Rommel's Africa Korps had not been halted at El Alamein by the British 8th Army under General Auchinlech there would have been nothing to stop them occupying the whole of Egypt (where many would have welcomed them), then crossing the Sinai Desert and destroying the Jewish community in Palestine, the embryo that would, a few years later, develop into the State of Israel. The Germans would then have a clear run to the oil fields of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and on to the borders of India and Russia. There was, indeed, a plan by the Haganah to defend the port and hills of Haifa - a vain hope that would have been, I fear, another Masada.
The summer and autumn of 1942 marked a turning point in the tide of World War 2. In June the advance of the Afrika Corps was halted. The main battle of El Alamein commenced on 23rd October, the night of the full moon, with an artillery barrage of over 800 guns - the largest ever. On 4th November, the 8th Army broke through the enemy lines and drove the Germans and their Italian allies out of Egypt into Libya and thence into Tunisia where they finally surrendered. I served in the 8th Army as a Royal Officer during the earlier retreat to El Alamein and then on the 1500 mile advance to Tunisia.
It was a real privilege to be able to take part in the 50th Anniversary Ceremony at El Alamein in October this year where, on behalf of AJEX, the British Association of Jewish Ex-Service Men ( later Men and Women!), I laid a wreath.
On 20th October 1992 I went to Israel and stayed 3 nights at Kibbutz Na'an, which specialises now in the production of irrigation equipment using their world-famous ''drip'' method. Early on Friday 23rd I joined 40 Israeli war veterans at Ben Gurion Airport, men and women of various original nationalities (English included) who had fought in the Eighth Army, either with the British Forces or as part of the Jewish Brigade. I was the only non-Israeli in the group that included a Brigadier and two Generals, one of whom was General Aharon Yariv, Israel's signatory to the 1973 Armistice Agreement with Egypt.
We flew to Cairo on the Egyptian Line ''Air Sinai''. From their in-flight magazine maps you would never know that Israel existed. At Cairo airport our Egyptian guide joined us for the journey to Alexandria. We passed the Pyramids and Sphinx without stopping and we then took the desert road to Alexandria. On the way our guide took us to visit the Sadat Memorial but passed without comment the 6th October Bridge and October City. In 1973, 6th October was the day of Yom Kippur when the Egyptians under Sadat attacked Israel and for several days enjoyed military success before eventually losing the war. That war raised doubts about the military invincibility of Israel and enabled the Egyptians to treat it as a victory and so save face. This no doubt helped create the climate which led, a few years later, to the Sadat/Begin accord.
At Alexandria we visited a synagogue which bore elegant signs of past wealth and glory. In the hotel lobby there was administrative chaos. By an awful mistake I was given one of the best suites and I confess I forgot to correct their error. Foreign Office efficiency ensured that an invitation awaited me from HRH Major General the Duke of Kent requesting the pleasure of my company at a reception at the British Embassy. I graciously accepted and you must permit me a little name-dropping. At the reception I met, shook hands and conversed with with the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister John Major, and Sir Michael Rivkind, Defence Secretary of State.
Wherever we travelled as a group we had a police/military escort front and rear blaring their sirens which cleared the road ahead but also gave advance warning to any waiting terrorists.
Armed Egyptian security men travelled in our coach. presumably to protect us from any dangerous Egyptians, or perhaps to protect any of them from us! In fact we were shown nothing but kindness from any Egyptians we met.
Early on Sunday 23rd October we drove from Alexandria along the coast road the 60 miles or so to El Alamein, which was just a very small railway station. The journey was far more comfortable than it had been 50 years previously. Instead of a single bumpy road only partly covered with tarmac, there is now a smooth well made dual carriage way. There is still plenty of sand and scrub, but the coast is now dotted with holiday homes and tourist villages - very attractive but many left half made where they had run out of money. The beautiful, turquoise Mediterranean, in which I used to swim so frequently during both retreat and advance, showed no signs of age or change.
At El Alamein there are no burnt out tanks, no destruction, no nasty smells - even no flies. There are the British, French, German and Greek War Memorials, with rows and rows and rows of clean, white, well-tended graves, and clean white marble altars and crucifixes, all of which hide the truth rather than portray it. As is so often the case the truth lay in the imagination.
We joined the ceremony at the British Memorial, conducted with usual British efficiency. The Duke of Kent, John Major and the clergy recited the appropriative words with appropriate solemnity, we sang appropriate hymns and said appropriate prayers. Under a hot mid-day sun the wreath party slow-marched through through the Guard of Honour (which included Israeli banners) to the memorial altar. There were about a dozen of us representing the various countries and Veterans Associations. Genral Yariv laid a wreath on behalf of the Jewish War Veterans of Israel who fought with the British forces and, on behalf of British AJEX, I laid a wreath which contained a large Magen David.
After the main ceremony, Malcolm Rivkind and others came with us to one of the Jewish graves where we recited Kaddish. Malcolm Rivkind then joined us in singing the Hatikvah in Hebrew. He told me he had learned it in Habonim.
I cannot say that I found either the ceremony at El Alamein, or the Remembrance Service at Westminster Abbey, particularly moving - it was all too sanitised. Perhaps that is because of my inherent cynicism. I did however get a thrill seeing, in Egypt, after the many Israeli-Egyptian wars, banners and flags held aloft for all to see the Israeli emblem and then laying a wreath bearing the Magen David. It was a satisfying defiance and pleasure that the peace between Israel and Egypt, albeit perhaps fragile, could permit this to happen.