165 - Showdown at El Alamein - WW2 - October 23, 1942

Wait, I thought they said it couldn’t be climbed in the mud.

But they climbed it anyway?

Impressive.

yeah.

Then what happened?

They were attacked and climbed back down.

Well, that was a always a possibility.

Since the wildly successful Axis offensive in June, the North African front has stabilized

at El Alamein, but that may soon change, for this week, the big Allied offensive there

finally kic ks off, the Second Battle of El Alamein.

I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

Last week, the Axis re started their offensive in the mountains of the Caucasus, and in the

second half of the week, all hell broke loose in Stalingrad.

The Japanese lost the naval Battle of Cape Esperance, yet they still landed thousands

of men on Guadalcanal and pounded the American positions there.

However, “The battle of material attrition in the Solomons was… drawing in the Japanese

ships, men, and aircraft at a rate they could not afford to continue for much longer.

It was precisely the kind of campaign Imperial General Staff had planned to avoid because

it reduced their ability to fortify their Pacific Defensive Perimeter.”

On the 18th, Bull Halsey take over Allied South Pacific Naval Command from Robert Ghormley.

His naval strength is Battleship Washington and her task force, Norman Scott’s cruisers,

and the carrier Hornet and her task force, but lo and behold, today the 23rd, the carrier

Enterprise- Halsey’s flagship, her task force, and the new battleship South Dakota

pull in to Noumea!

Tomorrow, President Franklin Roosevelt will direct the joint chiefs to “make sure that

every possible weapon gets through to that area to hold Guadalcanal.”

On Guadalcanal, the Japanese are now 20,000 strong and begin new attacks.

Tadashi Sumiyoshi, with his force of some 3,000 men, is to make probing attacks across

the Matanikau River, designed to draw off American troops from their southern perimeter,

where Harukichi Hyakutake is going to make the main attack, which is set first for the

22nd, but then moved to the 23rd since the jungle isn’t cooperating with getting the

heavy guns into position.

Then he asks for another 24 hour delay.

Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto by this time is getting annoyed because his

blockading fleet units are running low on fuel, but he agrees to it.

But then signals get crossed and Japanese command at Rabaul does not pass on the second

postponement to Sumiyoshi, so his force attacks tonight all by itself, across the Matanikau

with light tanks and infantry, and it does not go well.

The Marines are expecting something like this and blow up the tanks with 37 mm antitank