The Battle of El Alamein, or actually the Second Battle of El Alamein, stayed carried out in the period from October 23 to November 4, 1943. The battle was fought between the German-Italian troops and the British units, supported, however, to a significant extent by Australian, New Zealand and South African troops. It is assumed that about 116 thousand people fought on the side of the Axis countries. people supported by approx. 550 tanks and approx. 800-900 aircraft. On the British side, around 195,000 people fought. people, supported by approx. 1,100 tanks and approx. 750 aircraft. The Second Battle of El Alamein was a kind of continuation of the battle, known as the 1st Battle of El Alamein in July 1942. As a result of this second battle, the Axis offensive towards the Suez Canal was slowed down and finally stopped. On the other hand, the struggle of October-November 1942 was a British offensive to the west, intended to completely push the enemy out of Egypt. It can be assumed that the commander of this battle on the British side - field marshal Bernard Law Montgomery - won mainly thanks to the material advantage and much better logistics. Undoubtedly, however, the British commander, aware of his advantages, decisively used them and led to a decisive victory for his troops, winning the greatest victory in his career. Axis troops lost at least 30,000. people (killed, wounded and captured) and about 500 tanks. The British lost approx. 13-14 thousand. people and about 330 tanks.
The Crusader was a British tank of the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1939, and serial production continued in 1940-1943. In total, about 4,900 copies of this tank were built. Crusader was powered by an engine Nuffield Liberty Mk II with 340 hp. The vehicle was armed with - depending on the version - a single 40mm QF 2-pounder cannon or a single 57mm QF 6-pounder cannon and two 7.92mm and 7.7mm machine guns.
Tank Crusader was constructed as a successor to the failed Convenanter A13 car. First of all, the new tank was more carefully designed, which meant it had a much lower failure rate than its predecessor. The armor has also been improved. Despite these changes The Crusader, when it entered service, still had too weak armor, and above all, too weak weapons to fight enemy tanks. Its strengths include the aforementioned low failure rate and good mobility. Nevertheless, after the end of the North African campaign (1940-1943) in which the Crusader tanks played a major role, they were systematically and quickly withdrawn from the frontline units. Several versions of this tank were created in the course of serial production. Chronologically, the first was the Crusader I, which was the first mass-produced version of this tank. In May 1942, the Crusader III version made its debut, with a new 57mm gun and 51mm reinforced armor. After 1943, numerous specialist vehicles based on the Crusader chassis were built, such as the Crusader II Gun Traktor or the Crusader III AA Mk. I and II. Crusader tanks found themselves in the Free French, Australian and New Zealand units. They also became part of the equipment of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (PES).
At the outbreak of World War II, the British Army had only two Armored Division: the Mobile Division and the Egyptian Mobile Division. In 1939-1940 they were transformed into the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions. In the course of the war, another 9 armored divisions were formed, but not all of them entered action, and some of them did not go beyond the stage of formation and training. In 1940, the position of the British armored division envisaged two tank brigades, which included after a motorized infantry battalion, as well as numerous support units, including anti-tank artillery, field artillery, relatively numerous repair and transport units and sapper units. The division formed in this way consisted of about 220 tanks of various types. However, in 1944, the structure of the British armored division changed based on the experience of the fighting in North Africa and Normandy. The post from 1944 provided for the deployment of one armored brigade with three armored regiments of 78 tanks each ((total - 234 tanks), a motorized (de facto mechanized) infantry brigade with three battalions and relatively strong field artillery and support units - between It is worth adding that in the declining period of World War II, the British Armored Divisions were mainly equipped with Sherman tanks (also in the Firefly version), A34 Comet or the light M5 Stuart.
