In the summer, Hitler ordered an advance on Cairo. But Rommel found his supply lines overstretched and complained that ‘support only arrives when things are almost hopeless’. On the night of 1 November 1942, the British, under General Bernard Montgomery, stopped the German advance with a counterattack at El Alamein. Two days later, Rommel wrote to his wife: Dearest Lu, The battle is going very heavily against us. We’re simply being crushed by the enemy weight. I’ve made an attempt to salvage part of the army. I wonder if it will succeed. At night I lie open-eyed racking my brains for a way out of this plight for my poor troops. We are facing very difficult days, perhaps the most difficult a man can undergo. The dead are lucky, it’s all over for them. I think of you constantly with heartfelt love and gratitude. Perhaps all will yet be well and we shall see each other again. Unhelpfully, Hitler sent a signal saying: The situation demands that the positions at El Alamein be held to the last man.
