British Army during the Second World War the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Cunningham. Over time the Eighth Army would be commanded by Neil Ritchie, Claude Auchinleck, Bernard Montgomery, Oliver Leese and Richard McCreery. In the early years of the war 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 and joined the First Army in the 18th Army Group. The Eighth Army, under 15th Army Group command, later took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Allied invasion of Italy and the Italian Campaign, where progress was slow and
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