Battle of El Agheila into Tunisia. The 7th Armoured Division entered Tripoli on the night of and the reached the Mareth line, another west, on 23 January. Battle of El Agheila The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) and the Axis forces of the German-Italian "Panzer" Army ("Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel), during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis. It ended with the German-Italian "Panzer" Army resuming its retreat towards Tunisia, where the Tunisia Campaign
Australian Army during World War II further reinforcements. In mid-1942, the Axis forces defeated the Commonwealth force in Libya and advanced into north-west Egypt. In June the British Eighth Army made a stand just over west of Alexandria, at the railway siding of El Alamein and the 9th Division was brought forward to reinforce this position. The lead elements of the division arrived at El Alamein on 6 July and it was assigned the most northerly section of the Commonwealth defensive line. From that position, the 9th Division subsequently played a significant role in the First Battle of El Alamein, helping to halt the Axis advance.