L'Odyssee de la Brigade Ramcke a El Alamein

TEXT IN FRENCH

El Alamein—where Rommel’s seemingly irresistible offensive was stopped in its tracks as he sought to capture Alexandria in the summer of 1942. This followed many weeks of minor engagements, each side taking positions from the other in the rocks and sands of the Egyptian desert under a leaden sun.

Among the Axis forces was Fallschirmjäger-Brigade 1—known as Fallschirmjäger-Brigade Ramke after its famous commander. Together with their Italian allies, these “desert paratroopers” waited with impatience to take on the enemy. At the end of October 1942, British forces under the command of General Montgomery began an assault to the north of Brigade Ramke’s position. The Germans held firm to their position and could not be budged. Without prior warning, on the night of November 2 / 3, a retreat was given and Brigade Ramke had to rapidly retreat westwards to avoid encirclement and annihilation—this was a tall order as the Brigade had, at the outset, only a very small number of motor vehicles.

Luftwaffe war correspondent Hans Rechenberg was embedded within the ranks of the Brigade and plunges us into the daily life of the Fallschirmjägers in their positions at El Alamein and then the hasty retreat towards Libya with its agonies, privations and incredible surprises. The reader really gets to know the officers of the Brigade and of course the emblematic figure of Bernard Ramke himself.

Written at the time and on the spot some time before the author’s eventual capture in Tunisia in May 1943, this original, unvarnished account was commissioned for Reich propaganda purposes but was unknown until its recent discovery and it is now published for the first time. Numerous photographs of the Regiment and the Battle of El Alamein accompany this intimate account of life with Brigade-Ramke in the deserts of North Africa in World War II.