First Battle of El Alamein of C-in-C (which he refused). Gott was killed on the way to take up his command when his aircraft was shot down. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was appointed in his place and took command on 13 August. First Battle of El Alamein The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought in Egypt between Axis forces (Germany and Italy) of the Panzer Army Africa (, which included the under Field Marshal () Erwin Rommel) and Allied (British Imperial and Commonwealth) forces (Britain, British India, Australia, South Africa
Second Battle of El Alamein the Depression. The Axis advance was halted here in early July in the First Battle of El Alamein. The Eighth Army counter-offensives during July failed, as Rommel had dug in to allow his exhausted troops to regroup. Auchinleck called off all offensive action at the end of July to allow rebuilding the Eighth Army's strength. In early August, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and General Sir Alan Brooke—the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS)—visited Cairo and replaced Auchinleck as Commander-in-chief (C-in-C) Middle East Command with General Sir Harold Alexander. Lieutenant-General William Gott was appointed to command of the