British Army during the Second World War Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was given command of the Eighth Army. The Axis forces made a new attempt to break through to Cairo in August, in the Battle of Alam el Halfa but were stopped after the British fought a purely defensive battle. The much-reinforced Eighth Army launched a new offensive in October the Second Battle of El Alamein, decisively defeating the Axis forces. Eighth Army then advanced westward, capturing 10,000 German and 20,000 Italian prisoners, 450 tanks and 1,000 guns. In France the Dieppe Raid was carried out in August, the main assault was by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division,
El Alamein the Alamein Memorial and there is also a separate Alamein Cremation Memorial to 603 Commonwealth service personnel who died in Egypt and Libya and were cremated in line with their religion. The names of 213 Canadian airmen appear on the Alamein Memorial in Egypt. The cemetery was designed by Sir J. Hubert Worthington. El Alamein has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh), in common with most of the Middle East and north Africa. However, like the rest of the northern coast of Egypt, its climate is slightly less hot, compared to the rest of Egypt, because of the