Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows, through staged and archival film footage, a map and interviews, preparations for and then the battle near El Alamein in 1942 that halted the German General Rommel’s advance on Cairo. A narrator tells of the involvement and competence of Australian troops, who are shown laying mines, advancing and fighting in desert warfare. Two veterans of the campaign describe the lead-up to and then the attack. Night scenes illustrate the ferocity of the artillery barrage which is described by an Australian fighter pilot who witnessed it from the air.

Educational value points

• The engagement at El Alamein, in which the Australian 9th Division took a leading role as part of the Allied British 8th Army, lasted from 23 October until 5 November 1942. The infantry made three determined attacks that drew Rommel’s Africa Corps to the north, allowing a breakthrough by the British tanks that halted Rommel’s advance into Egypt and the Suez Canal. The battle for El Alamein involved 230,000 Allied soldiers with 1,100 tanks against 80,000 men and 600 tanks.

• The massive predawn artillery bombardment that signalled the beginning of the battle is vividly depicted in the clip. The barrage began at 9.40 pm on 23 October 1942 and was provided by 880 guns trained on the fixed defences of the Germans, their field guns and tanks as well as their trenches, minefields and wire defences. This attacking fire created a ‘creeping barrage’, or curtain of protective fire, for the advance of Allied infantry and tanks.

• The Australian troops bore the brunt of Rommel’s armoured attack and suffered a high number of casualties at El Alamein. Australians made up only 10 per cent of the British 8th Army in the El Alamein campaign, but suffered 22 per cent of the casualties. Between July and the beginning of November 1942 the 9th Division suffered almost 6,000 casualties with more than 1,200 Australians killed. In the October campaign alone, 620 died.

• The clip employs a number of elements – music, staged and archival footage, sound effects, a narration and interviews – to present a dramatic depiction of the campaign. Music composed specifically for the film is mixed with rich sound effects to build tension and convey the drama of the battle scenes. Interviews with veterans of the campaign provide eyewitness accounts and a narrator provides factual background and a concluding commentary.

• The Battle of El Alamein helped confirm the reputation of Australian soldiers earned during the First World War for being fierce defiant fighters. The Australian 9th Division featured in the clip had just taken part in the siege of Tobruk in 1941. In the heat of the garrison town, together with British, Indian and Polish forces, they held out against German air raids and artillery attacks for more than six months. German propagandists christened them the ‘rats of Tobruk’.

• The laying of mines, shown in the clip, proved to be significant in the final outcome of the Battle. Between January and July 1942 the two armies had dug in and had time to lay extensive minefields along the 64.3-km front that lay between them. The German minefields were so much larger than expected that they held up the Allied tanks in their attempt to break through the enemy lines and support the Allied infantry forces.

Black-and-white footage of Australian troops laying mines, advancing and fighting in desert warfare. A map shows Tobruk, El Alamein and Cairo.
Narrator By October 1942, one division of our troops was still in the Middle East. Tobruk had fallen to Rommel, and his desert army had advanced towards El Alamein and Cairo. The same Australians who defied the Germans at Tobruk were now back into action with the British army. They lived up to their fierce reputation In a series of battles. This led to one of the great artillery barrages of the war, near El Alamein.

Sergeant Max Parsons, a grocer from Malvern, is interviewed.
Sergeant Parsons It was dark. It was absolutely still. We could hear them counting down, ‘10, 9, 8, 7 … 3, 2, 1 …’

Black-and-white footage of troops advancing in the dark, accompanied by the sound of men shouting and artillery fire.

Another veteran is being interviewed.
Veteran Just like hell let loose, as they say. You just keep walking ahead. Just keep walking and hope you survive.

More battle footage. Squadron Leader Bobby Gibbes, a jackaroo from Nyngan, is interviewed.
Squadron Leader Gibbes I was overhead before daylight that morning and the whole area was alight with gunfire from both sides. I was very thankful that I was up above looking down, not down amongst it. And you wonder how anyone could have possibly lived through it. It was fantastic. It was a sea of flame underneath me.

Footage of explosions and soldiers fighting in the desert.
Narrator In the mayhem of the following days, the Australians broke into Rommel’s defences.