The Eighth Army after El Alamein, autumn 1942
Guns fire under nets, infantry advance through wet sand, columns of prisoners fill the desert, and British tanks reach Benghazi.
Vehicles lie dispersed across the desert below an aircraft; a British infantryman in a flat steel helmet and shorts advances with fixed bayonet through puddled sand; crewmen in berets climb onto a tank turret; guns fire from beneath camouflage nets; a dense column of prisoners stretches across the flat ground beside an armoured vehicle; an officer in a German field cap stands in profile; soldiers handle the Union Jack on stony ground; at Benghazi a tank commander passes a white column, and tanks churn through the sand.
The Second Battle of El Alamein, opened by Montgomery on 23 October 1942, broke the German-Italian army in Egypt; within three weeks the Eighth Army had pursued it back into Cyrenaica and entered Benghazi on 20 November. The newsreel, released by MGM as News of the Day, told the war as its American audience was meant to see it.
Film Vehicles scattered over the desert, seen from the air
Film A British infantryman with fixed bayonet in the wet desert
Film Tank crewmen in berets climb onto the turret
Film Field guns fire from under camouflage nets
Film A great column of Axis prisoners in the desert
Film A captured German officer in a field cap
Film Soldiers handle a Union Jack on stony ground
Film A British tank commander beside a white column
Film