Veterans Return to El Alamein 70 Years On
22 October 2012
Veterans of the Battle of El Alamein came together for a
memorial ceremony on 20 October to mark the 70th
anniversary. The service was held at El Alamein War Cemetery which contains 7,240
Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.
It was attended by our Vice-Chairman Sir Alistair Irwin and 92
year old Peter Watson, a veteran of the Black Watch and the North
Africa Campaign, who are pictured laying a wreath.
The Battle of El Alamein, 23 October - 4 November 1942, is the
most famous event of the North Africa Campaign and was one of the
decisive battles of history. It was the culmination of a campaign
in which the Eighth Army and the Desert Air Force had fought as
one, their flanks and supply routes guarded, and those of the
enemy harassed, by the Navy, and their supplies brought to them by
the Merchant Navy. The victory led to the final expulsion of the
Axis Forces from North Africa in April 1943..