Montgomery's Top 3 Legendary Tactical Moves | The Victor of El Alamein

Montgomery's top 3 legendary tactical moves, from the fake map that wrecked Rommel at Alam Halfa to the deception plan that won El Alamein and the "left hook" that broke the Mareth Line. This is the story of how Bernard Montgomery, the Victor of El Alamein, took command of a beaten Eighth Army in August 1942 and never lost another battle. In the summer of 1942 the British Empire was losing the desert war. Tobruk had fallen, the Eighth Army had been driven back into Egypt, and Rommel stood sixty miles from Alexandria with the Suez Canal and the oil of the Middle East open behind it. Then one man took command and turned the entire campaign around. This mini documentary breaks down the three tactical masterstrokes that destroyed the Desert Fox and drove the Axis out of North Africa. WHAT THIS VIDEO COVERS The Battle of Alam Halfa (August 1942) and Montgomery's refusal to fight Rommel's battle, the dug-in Grant tanks used as anti-tank guns, and the falsified "going map" that lured the Afrika Korps into soft sand and a fuel crisis The Second Battle of El Alamein (October to November 1942), Operation Lightfoot and Operation Supercharge, the "crumbling" attrition method, the Devil's Gardens minefields, and the last stand of the Rifle Brigade at Snipe where a single battalion knocked out more than fifty tanks Operation Bertram, one of the most complete military deceptions of the Second World War, including the canvas sunshields that disguised tanks as trucks, the dummy Grant tanks, and the fake water pipeline built at a deliberate pace to convince German intelligence the attack would come later and further south The Mareth Line (March 1943), Operation Pugilist and the New Zealand Corps "left hook" through the Matmata Hills, and the low-level air blitz under Harry Broadhurst that broke the Italian First Army and answered the charge that Montgomery could only fight set-piece battles Alongside the tactics, the video covers Montgomery the man, the two-badge beret, the captured caravan, the photograph of Rommel he kept to study his opponent, and the primary-source words of Rommel, Hitler, von Thoma and Churchill as the battle turned. RESEARCH AND SOURCES Niall Barr, Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein Stephen Bungay, Alamein The Rommel Papers, edited by Basil Liddell Hart The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery Nigel Hamilton, Monty: The Making of a General Correlli Barnett, The Desert Generals Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn The British Official History, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume Four Imperial War Museum archives FURTHER READING For the desert war in full, Barr's Pendulum of War and Bungay's Alamein are the best modern single-volume accounts. For Rommel's side, The Rommel Papers remains essential. For a critical, revisionist view of Montgomery's reputation, Barnett's The Desert Generals gives the case for the opposition. For the wider North African and Mediterranean campaign, Atkinson's An Army at Dawn is the definitive narrative history. If you enjoy detailed tactical breakdowns of the commanders who shaped the Second World War, subscribe to British War Machine for more. Which commander should we cover next? Let us know in the comments. #Montgomery #ElAlamein #WW2 #MilitaryHistory #Rommel #WorldWarII #DesertWar #History #Tactics #EighthArmy