Battle of Alam el Halfa Battle of Alam el Halfa The Battle of Alam el Halfa took place between 30 August and 5 September 1942 south of El Alamein during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. "Panzerarmee Afrika"—a German–Italian force commanded by "Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel—attempted an envelopment of the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery. In the last major Axis offensive (Operation Brandung/"Unternehmung Brandung") of the Western Desert Campaign, Rommel had planned to defeat the Eighth Army before Allied reinforcements made an Axis victory in Africa impossible. Montgomery, who had been forewarned of Rommel's intentions by Ultra intelligence intercepts, left
Templecombe General Sir Richard McCreery GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (1898–1967), Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein and later commanded the British Eighth Army in Northern Italy during 1944–45, died in Templecombe. Templecombe Templecombe is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the A357 road five miles south of Wincanton, twelve miles east of Yeovil, and 30 miles west of Salisbury. The village has a population of 1,560. Along with the hamlet of Combe Throop it forms the parish of Abbas and Templecombe. Prior to