UNDER THE SUN (ALMOST)
7th July, 1942 : After a run of defeats, the Eighth Army has beaten back the great German desert offensive. For three days both sides threw everything they had into the battle, but today the British line at El Alamein has held. For the first time, General Claude Auchinleck’s forces have seized the initiative and struck back hard on the Axis flank; German troops are moving back and attempting to regroup. General Rommel’s offensive, in which he used the massed armour of three divisions like a meat cleaver to hack a route into Egypt, rapidly advancing over 300 miles, appears to have been decisively halted.