Feature: War site brings alive bitter memory of El Alamein Battle

Located on the Mediterranean Sea, over 300 km from the Egyptian capital Cairo, El Alamein still stands after 73 years as eyewitness of a historical battle during the World War II that marked a dramatic change of the world's balance of powers.

Although it's now expanding, surrounded by classy beach resorts and inhabited by a few thousands of residents, El Alamein was just a little town with most of its sandy lands covered with palm and olive trees before the 1939-1945 World War II.

El Alamein Battle, launched from October 23 to November 4, 1942, was a turning point during the World War II where the Allied forces led by British commander Bernard Law Montgomery defeated the Axis German-Italian forces led by "Desert Fox" German general Erwin Rommel.

Not too far from the coast, El Alamein Military Museum was open for visitors with its three main British, German and Italian halls displaying remains of real old weapons, equipments, ammunitions, food and fuel supplies and even real photos of the daily life of soldiers of various troops dating back to El Alamein Battle.

Entering the museum gate topped by some 20 flags of different countries starting with Egypt's, the exterior yard of the renewed museum shows few pieces of old intact and broken beige tanks, artilleries, armored vehicles and others, including a Ford 3-Ton Supply Truck.

"The Ford vehicle remaining from the battle was found in the desert in 1995 and we changed its oil and tires and amazingly it started and was driven to the museum," Ahmed, the museum guide, explained to visitors.

On October 23 every year, foreign ambassadors and Egyptian officials, as well as family members of some of the war victims from around the globe, come to El Alamein to commemorate the battle day and memorize their lost ones by prayers and wreaths of flowers.

Alongside the street of the museum lies El Alamein War Cemetery and El Alamein Memorial, a vast area of land including the dead bodies of some 20,000 soldiers mostly from Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

"The cemetery contains 7,367 burials of which 815 are unidentified by name; the names of a further 603 men, whose remains were cremated, are commemorated on the Cremation Memorial within the cemetery," read a sign at the main gate. The Memorial contains 11,945 soldiers.

Each tomb read the name, division, nationality, date of death and age of the deceased, like this one reading, "62166 Private C. G. Thomson N.Z. 24th October 1942 Age 27." The burials of those unidentified read, "Known unto God."

"It's a very interesting place narrating a historical period and standing like an eyewitness that documents the sufferings of a lot of peoples and countries," chemistry engineer Kareem told Xinhua while taking a tour at the cemetery.

His friend Ahmed al-Anwar, a 29-year-old civil engineer, said the place stirs up reflection on how a lot of people left their homelands to die here for specific causes. "It makes us value our lives and try to develop our thoughts that people's lives are not cheap."

People of El Alamein town think that the battle did them more harm than benefit due to the landmines left behind, which were planted by Rommel as defense lines against the advancing Allied forces, yet they have high hopes due to the Egyptian military continuous mine clearance and the government's plan to expand and develop the town to "New El Alamein city."

Egyptian official sources said that the warring troops left behind about 17.5 million landmines in many areas of the Western Desert, the most notorious of which was "the Devil's Gardens" where landmines were laid by the Axis forces to cover up their withdrawal from El Alamein.

"The town here smells like history, yet the battle left behind suffering and pain, as many residents died and were amputated due to the explosion of landmines scattered everywhere in the desert," Gibreel Gomaa, an owner of a small stall for cookies and beverages in the town, told Xinhua.

The 32-year-old man expressed optimism that the continuous mine clearance expanded houses in the town and encouraged oil companies to operate there unlike in the past. "We are optimistic because 50 km from here there will be the new El Alamein city, a new industrial city that will be inaugurated by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi one day soon."

The cemeteries of the Germans and Italians were located around 15 km far from those of the commonwealth, not too far from each other and containing together the remains of more than around 9,000 German and Italian soldiers.

"The land of the German cemetery is a gift from the Egyptian people," reads an engraved sign at the entrance of the yellowish fortress-like cemetery over a little hill.

"Some 4,200 German soldiers are buried here. They were mixed together with Italian burials for years until in 1956 the German government decided to build this place and recognized the Germans from the Italians from their names," Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Raouf, the guard and guide of the German cemetery in El Alamein, told Xinhua.

The entrance of the fortress-like cemetery shows a mosaic painting of three women and three men on the left and right of a central cross representing the family members of the war victims.

"The three women represent the mother, wife and sister of the deceased while the three men represent his father, brother and son," the guide explained, noting that there are other 31 unidentified soldiers with unknown nationalities buried in the place.

Back to the main highway, and moving for a couple of kilometers in Matrouh direction, the entrance of the Italian El Alamein Memorial or "Sacrario Italiano a El Alamein" attracts the attention, leading to an octagonal castle-like memorial topped by the flag of Italy, containing boxes of the remains of some 4,800 Italian soldiers.

"I heard about World War I and II but I did not know that there are Italian soldiers buried here," Amr, 16-year-old, told Xinhua, adding that he is so interested in history and that he knows the Battle of El Alamein marked the beginning of the decline of Fascism and Nazism. "I see the World War II as a fight over who would be in control of the world."

The victorious Allied countries celebrate this year the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II and the fall of the German, Italian and Japanese empires after fierce years of military campaigns. Endit