El Alamein War Memorials
The Commonwealth, German and Italian memorials of the 1942 battle, on the Mediterranean coast west of Alexandria.
The battle that turned the war
In 1942, the desert around El Alamein, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast about 105 kilometres west of Alexandria, was the scene of the battles that halted the advance of the German and Italian forces under Erwin Rommel towards Alexandria and the Suez Canal. The Second Battle of El Alamein, in October and November 1942, in which the British Eighth Army under Bernard Montgomery defeated the Axis forces, is regarded as one of the turning points of the Second World War. Tens of thousands of soldiers from many nations were killed or wounded.
Three memorials
Three major memorials commemorate the dead. The El Alamein War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, holds the graves of thousands of soldiers from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Canada and other countries, in rows of white headstones set among gardens, with the Alamein Memorial listing the names of those with no known grave. The German War Memorial, built in 1959, is a fortress-like octagonal building of sandstone on a hill overlooking the sea, containing the remains of German soldiers. The Italian Memorial (Sacrario Militare Italiano), also completed in 1959, is a tall white tower and chapel near the coast, holding the remains of Italian soldiers.
Visiting
The memorials are spread along the coast road near El Alamein and can be visited together with the El Alamein Military Museum. Each year in October, commemorations are held with representatives of the nations that fought here.
Exhibo editorial
The rows of white headstones in the Commonwealth cemetery stretch out under the desert sky, each one with a name, an age, sometimes a line from a family — boys of nineteen and twenty from Manchester, Auckland, Cape Town, Punjab. A few kilometres away, the German memorial stands like a sombre fortress, and the Italian one rises white beside the sea.
Three nations, three architectures of grief, on the same stretch of desert. It's a deeply moving place, whatever your history. Visit quietly, combine it with the military museum, and take a moment to look out at the sea that the soldiers were fighting to reach.
Gallery
How to find it
The memorials lie along the coastal road near El Alamein, about 105 km west of Alexandria. The Commonwealth War Cemetery is near the town and the military museum; the German memorial stands on a hill a few kilometres to the west, and the Italian memorial further west near the coast.