Why did the El Alamein Battle start?
the battle began because the British needed to drive the Germans away from Egypt and the Suez Canal. If the Germans had taken the Suez Canal they could have stopped supplies from travelling between the UK and India, and they would have been open to attack East to Iraq to seize its oil, then North to support their attack on the Southern USSR. The British, therefore, had to win at El Alamein or risk losing their empire in the Middle East, and a German victory could well have meant German victory in the war, as capturing the Iraqi and Arabian oil fields, which were controlled by the British at that time, would have given them all the fuel they needed. The Germans had no major sources of fuel and this seriously slowed down their attacks elsewhere, especially in the USSR. The Battle started with an enormous British artillery bombardment that smashed open German trenches. British engineers had been busy clearing mines and tanks were able to push through the gaps in the German minefields, fol
