"Montgomery's Iron Back 8th Army ... Rommel's Crack Africa Korps ... they met head on and tore the earth apart !"

The Battle of El Alamein

June 1942. As Rommel swept toward the Nile, the fall of Egypt and the capture of the Suez Canal seemed inevitable. Italian and German advance units raced toward Alexandria. Mussolini had given explicit orders: The Italians must arrive first!