German and Italian forces in North Africa knew that an offensive from Montgomery's

eighth army in Egypt was coming, but a whole other offensive force was gathering at Gibraltar.

The Axis side did not yet realize it, but the situation in North Africa was about to change dramatically.

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Music The

The Episode 378.

The End of the Beginning.

Two episodes ago, I ended the narrative on October 23, 1942, just as the second battle of El Alamein was about to begin.

That was ten weeks after Bernard Montgomery was put in command of the Eighth Army, a long wait to be sure, especially considering how

impatient the Prime Minister was to see the British Army go on the offensive.

Fortunately for Montgomery, he had an ally in his superior, General Harold Alexander,

head of the Middle East Command, who defended him when the prime minister

expressed doubt. Montgomery put the time to good use. He spent some of it meeting with his soldiers,

which helped boost morale in the battered 8th Army. New tanks, trucks, ammunition, and supplies were

arriving every week,

so time was most assuredly on the British side.

The Axis forces were in trouble, and they knew it.

Axis aircraft flew regular reconnaissance over the British lines,

and they saw for themselves how the British were

getting more of everything, more soldiers, more tanks, more lorries, more fuel, more ammunition.

Supply to the Axis side had to be trucked over that long, long road from Tripoli, and the trucks

ate up most of the fuel they carried before they arrived.

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