Indian Army during World War II Cunningham. Over time, the Eighth Army would be commanded by Generals Neil Ritchie, Claude Auchinleck and Bernard Montgomery. In the early years of the war, the Eighth Army suffered from poor leadership and repeated reversals of fortune until the Second Battle of El Alamein when it advanced across Libya into Tunisia. The Ninth Army was formed on 1 November 1941 with the re designation of the Headquarters of the British Troops in Mandate Palestine and Transjordan. It controlled British and Commonwealth land forces stationed in the eastern Mediterranean. Its commanders were General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson and Lieutenant-General Sir William
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