The fighting in the Western Desert between Allied and Axis forces was as bitter and merciless as any war could be, and at Ruweisat Ridge a British armoured brigade suffered catastrophic losses at the hands of the Afrika Korps. On the German side, the actions of just one man, Günter Halm, stood out as he battled to stem the Allied advance winning the Knight’s Cross in the process. Robin Schäfer presents his remarkable story which is told exclusively for Britain at War by Günter Halm himself.
Ruweisat Ridge is a rocky and austere geographical feature in the Western Egyptian desert, set between the Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara Depression about 12 miles south of El Alamein. The series of engagements fought across it as part of the Battle of El Alamein rightfully rank among the most crucial of the African campaign in the Second World War.
Following the German victories at Gazala, and the capture of Tobruk, the British 8th Army had been forced to withdraw. Establishing new positions at Mersa Matruh, a small coastal port halfway between Cyrenaica and El Alamein which was then the last coastal fortress in Allied possession, the port having been fortified in 1940 when Italy first invaded Egypt.
Rommel’s <…
