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 of Stalingrad and the Guadalcanal Campaign. The Panzer Army Africa ("Panzerarmee Afrika"), composed of German and Italian infantry and mechanised units under "Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel, had struck deep into Egypt by 12 July 1942 after its success at the Battle of Gazala. This threatened the British Empire's control of the Suez Canal and Mandatory Palestine. General Claude Auchinleck withdrew the Eighth Army to within of Alexandria to a point where the Qattara Depression came to within of El Alamein on the coast. This gave the defenders a short front to defend and provided secure flanks because tanks could not traverse