Land mine invention by the Polish officer Józef Kosacki. His invention, known as the Polish mine detector, was used by the Allies alongside mechanical methods, to clear the German mine fields during the Second Battle of El Alamein when 500 units were shipped to Field Marshal Montgomery's Eighth Army. The Nazis used captured civilians who were chased across minefields to detonate the explosives. According to Laurence Rees "Curt von Gottberg, the SS-Obergruppenführer who, during 1943, conducted another huge anti-partisan action called Operation Kottbus on the eastern border of Belarus, reported that 'approximately two to three thousand local people were blown up in
Second Battle of El Alamein and Point 102 on 30 August 1942. The attack failed in this second battle at the Alamein line, better known as the Battle of Alam el Halfa (commonly, but incorrectly, Alam Halfa); expecting a counter-attack by Montgomery's Eighth Army, Panzer Army Africa dug in. The factors that had favoured the Eighth Army's defensive plan in the First Battle of El Alamein, the short front line and the secure flanks, now favoured the Axis defence. Rommel, furthermore, had plenty of time to prepare his defensive positions and lay extensive minefields (laying approximately 500,000 mines) and barbed wire. Alexander and Montgomery were