250 THE MARETH LINE 1943: The End in Africa

The battle of El Alamein shattered Germany's hopes for victory in North Africa. The German and Italian armies, under an increasingly ailing Rommel, fled from the encroaching Eighth Army to settle into the pre-war French defensive position called the Mareth Line. Here was fought one of the last great battles of the Desert War as the veteran formations of the British Eighth Army took on their foes in the Afrikakorps. It was also one of Rommel's last acts in the Desert War as his health problems forced his return to Germany shortly afterwards.