About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

34 Army Hist. 1 (1995)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0034 and id is 1 raw text is: A RMY HISTORY TIE P*(OFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF ARMY HISTORY Pff-20.95-2 (Ne. 34) Washington, D.C. SpringfSummer 1995 Staff Ride to El Alamein Kenneth R. Bowra From the rocky. weathered fighting position, fac- ing to the northe ast, we had excellent fle ds of ire and nearly unlimited observationof the battlcfield. All was quiet now, as it has been for fifty-one years, following the most critical battle of the North African campaign. Here, at21 :40 n 23 October 1942, --. GL(n. Bemnard L. Montgomery, commanding the British Eighth Army, launched his antcipated offensive with an intensive artillery barrage aiong the entire rToni The hattie of El Alamein had begun. On this summer day in July 191, I was retracing te i ive p*Lfions of the Germ an forces located in the southern sec tor of the Axis positions The purpose of my visit was to prepare a staff ride for my officers of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airbomre), who would be in Egypt for an exercise later that year. A staff ride of the El Alamein battle field was an idead training event for the 5th Group. the Speciad For Group oriented to CENTCOM I(U S Central Command), since desert operations are the cornersone of most missions the group must be able to undertake.- The 5th Special Forces Group conduted a numer 4f successful desert missions duting Operation D1SERT StR M The requirement t1o have a mounted capa bilty f or all oifth- de ployed Operati nal De tachment As (the Special Forces twelve-man A teams) was mherent in the mnt ion le'trs and operations pLas suppo-d by the unit The group used the DMV (Desert M hility Vehicle)., a modified H MMWV. ln desert operations, mobilty cquates to surmvabily. Leaving the coast road at the small town of El Alamein, we traveled with our Egyptian military liai- son (C ficer to the southwest, toward the Qatt.tra D- p ion. We passed the ncrmerpositons of the Nliaan Bologna Dmvasion, located to the northwest of the Ruweist. Ridge. The desert was empty, e xcept for occstional herds ofamels Within see kral 3. eters of this ,location. io the south of Deirel Shein, we came upon a rise n the terrain which offered excellent de fensive postions A review of the Gmian iaps of- 192 indIc ated that Lhis could very welbe the positions of the Germ an Ramcke Brigade, a Fallsuhirmjager brigade. The Ramcke Bra gade was a Laftwaffc paratroop formation sent to the Afrika Korps in the summer of 1942. it w as commanded by Gernralmajor tle mhardt Ramcke. The brigade was composed of four infantry battalions, an aitil ery battalion, an antitank company, and a pioneer company. It took up a position in the German-Italian line between the Italian Bologna and Brescia D ivirns, facing the southem sector of the E-l Alamein lne. As we climbed the high ground off to the north of our road, we immediately saw numerous fighting po itions, with rocks piled around each W used our GPS (Global Positioning System) to lo-k in our coor dinates M an attempt to confirm it, in fact, that was the kamneke 8rrgade position. After several different read. Ings. the correct coordinates placed our center of mass where the brigade w as to have been located, at grid 762983. As we walked through the sand-filled trenches, it was not clear what forces had occupied the postion. Slowly w searched the area, finding remnants of ration and water cans, the maJority of the rat ion tins being sardine and meat c ans. Veterans of the Afrika KJrps refered to the cans of Italran miitary sausage as 'Old Man (n German, Alien Mann). for the initials AM that weremarked onthese cans. Thesardinetins also were a basic ration of the Afrika Korps, and were from occupied Nor'way and Italy. They were found lyMig next to nearly every position, from fighting positions to the communications trenches conneectin all the positlons. My tirst thoughts Were of the abso lutely poor camp h yicne and policing of the posi tions- thinking that the leadership must have been terrible to condone such a mess. 'Ten, after revie wing the actual events, I riaiaed that this position was held until appmximately 4 November 1942-about twelve days under intense artillery fire. Accordingly, the foIreroccupnts of this position were forced to remain

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most