There were 230,000 Allied troops versus 77,000 Axis troops; 1,400 Allied tanks, including 400 Sherman and Grant tanks, versus 600 Axis; 1,500 Allied anti-aircraft guns versus 1,000 Axis; 900 Allied aircraft versus 400 Axis. More important than that, the Allies had short supply lines, one hundred kilometers from Alexandria, versus long Axis supply lines, one thousand kilometers from Tobruk.
The foreign consulates had finished burning their papers in Alexandria. Emigration from the city slowed, as only a few of its original inhabitants or those who had fled to it from their villages were left. Sometimes it made sense for some to take refuge in fire if it meant a chance to escape death!
The month of Ramadan had come and gone and so had the days of the feast. On the eve of the middle of Shawwal and October 24, with a full moon and a refreshing breeze, everything was portending an imminent explosion. It was inconceivable that the desert could witness such a majestic night at a time full of loathing and madness. At exactly 9:40 p.m., all at once a barrage of shells and missiles was let loose from one thousand guns at the faraway enemy and at the minefields in front of them. At the same time, planes came from Alexandria and the Delta, dropping gigantic bombs on the well-fortified Axis defenses. The Thirtieth and Thirteenth Battalions advanced, followed by two armored brigades from the mighty Tenth Corps. The soldiers marched at a hysterical pace brought about by the sound of bombs and shells exploding in the midst of the minefields, destroying the mines and sending off dazzling flashes of light that danced in the middle of the no man’s land — flashes descending from the sky, and flashes ascending from the earth, flashes coming from the east and flashes coming from the west — a carnival of fire diabolically, unimaginably beautiful. Twenty minutes later, at exactly 10 p.m., was Montgomery’s bedtime. He serenely went to bed, and fell asleep as the whole world staved up waiting for the outcome of the decisive battle. People in Alexandria could hear the guns and see the planes. Cairo shook, and the rest of the country stayed up and watched.
Dressed in their shorts and woolen shirts, infantrymen advanced through the dust and the fire. The cold of the desert night was gone in the midst of the fire. The men carried on their shoulders their rifles with bayonets at the ready and all their possessions: cookies, canned corned beef, and cigarettes. Some carried a light mortar or a submachine gun. They all had hand grenades and empty sacks that they would fill with sand to fortify their positions when they gained ground. Each attack group was commanded by a navigating officer, who carried a small compass and a roll of tape, which he uncoiled behind him to guide those coming after him to the right path through the mines and the dust. Many navigation officers died that night and the following nights. As for the Scottish bagpipers who played on in the midst of those volcanoes, their music was considerably subdued as the landmines blew them away, or the dust choked them, or the guns destroyed them, or the bombs and airplanes drowned out their valiant efforts. Teams of engineers went ahead of everyone, trying to detect anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. They lost many of their men. The Australians were to the right, the New Zealanders to the left, and the bagpipes in the middle, falling. Soldiers were jabbering, their nervous laughter mixed with crying. The offensive turned into near-chaos. Everyone was oblivious to everyone else. The Axis firepower unleashed flames from hell on the Allies. By morning the bagpipe music had been totally silenced. The Thirteenth Battalion had made a large breach in the Axis front. General Stumme had died of a heart attack, an Australian squad having managed to break through the German lines and attack his car.
Montgomery woke up early the following morning. Air Force sorties were still flying. The RAF had flown a thousand sorties during the night in addition to a hundred and fifty sorties flown by the USAF. The Luftwaffe disappeared from the sky, and the Allies had total control of the air. Monty was pleased.
On the third day of the battle, Rommel arrived at the front, cutting short his medical leave. On the fifth day Monty decided to launch his main offensive, which he dubbed ‘Excess Baggage.’ Rommel wrote to his wife, “There’s still a chance today. Perhaps we can still stand fast, but we might not, and that could have dire consequences for the whole war.”
Rommel decided to retreat to Fuka, sixty miles to the west. Monty postponed “Excess Baggage” until the second of November. Hitler issued orders to stay and fight, but it was no use. The Axis army was exhausted, and the whole matter was already out of Rommel’s hands. The Fifth Indian Brigade had launched a lightning attack five miles south of Tall al-Aqaqir, after which the way was open for the armored corps to pursue the Axis in the desert. The jubilant fakir boy soldiers, followers of Ghandi, Nehru, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, were now on top of their armored vehicles pursuing an army that only yesterday had been an invincible legend. It was now an army in disarray scattered in the vast desert, beyond the minefields that the Indians had managed to penetrate. Rommel began his quick and total withdrawal. He did not have sufficient means of transportation, and suffered a fuel shortage. There was chaos in the ranks, and the Germans took their vehicles and ran away, leaving behind six Italian divisions, lost in the desert without food or water, their only option to be taken prisoner. The Allies could have turned the defeat into a major killing field, but the rain was Rommel’s ally. It began falling suddenly, and hard, and the Allies were stalled until Rommel left the Egyptian borders. The desert was now a graveyard for wrecked and burned tanks, cars on fire, cars totally burned out, corpses both complete and disfigured, helmets with heads with open eyes, shoes with feet, arms with no bodies attached, legs, burned uniforms. The smell of burned flesh was all over the desert. Scorpions and snakes came out, and blue flies appeared after the rain. Kites and old vultures flew overhead. The smell of death filled the air.
Rommel wrote his wife, “Our neighbor has simply crushed us. I made an attempt to save part of the army. Will my attempt succeed? At night I lie down, my eyes wide open, racking my brain trying to find a way out of this ordeal for my poor soldiers. we are facing difficult days, the hardest that can happen to anyone. The dead are lucky, it is all over for them.”
Churchill ordered that the church bells in London be rung for the first time since the outbreak of the war, and peals were heard all over London and other English cities, and people took to the streets in jubilation. There was jubilation in Alexandria, too. The streets were lit up for the first time in three years. The lights, which were turned on suddenly before midnight, turned the city into an immeasurable mass of amber. The blue paint covering the tall lamppost fixtures had vanished with the passage of time, and the weather conditions changed, giving the city a new, endless phosphorescent ceiling. Those out on the street shouted in jubilation, and those indoors came out to admire the pearls and diamonds newly studding the night sky. How could it have been possible for Alexandria to remain darkened for so long? Owners of closed stores came out and opened them in the middle of the night. Men went out to coffeehouses that decided to stay open until the morning. Women let loose ululations of joy from the windows of their homes, and children were allowed to play in the streets despite the chill in the air. It seemed everyone had agreed to stay up till morning. Music played on at the Monsignor, the Louvre, and the Windsor nightclubs. Soldiers exchanged kisses with ATS women on the streets. Whiskey and champagne flowed in the posh brothels, now roaring with laughter, and so did rum, brandy, and arak in the poorer brothels, which were suddenly bustling with business again. It was as if everyone, the whores and the pleasure-seekers alike, was just around the corner, waiting for the lights to come back on. Horse-drawn carriages carrying lovers galloped along the corniche, as the sound of the waves became more regular because of the light wind. The destroyers and military ships turned their lights on and started shooting fireworks over the city. Thousands of people went up to the roofs and released balloons into the sky. Cannons started to discharge, and for a moment people were scared, but they soon realized that they were shots of celebration. On the corniche a man who saw the sky lit up with phosphorescent missiles and the surf rising, shouted, “Dance, Alexandria, dance — Hitler had no chance.” Another man heard him and repeated what he had said. The words spread throughout the city, then became a song. People kept talking and telling stories, which everyone knew, about the days of the war, which had ended only the day before. The city administration decided to have decorations everywhere, and the streetcar company decided to give everyone free rides for several days. Celebrations were held at schools. Refugees began to return in droves. Army and police bands played their music in the streets and the squares. The autumn sun rose gently, filling the city with a white glow. Hamidu was released. He had been arrested again, despite what he had written on the walls. As usual his mother celebrated, and he stood there laughing amongst the happy well-wishers. Ghaffara took off his fez, deciding never to wear it again. He was surprised that after losing the glass part, he had also lost the filter, and realized that he had been breathing regular, unfiltered air. He could not figure out how he had not noticed the loss of the heavy filter. Anyway, he laughed and reattached the wooden side panels to his cart, writing on them, “Sawdust cart. Capacity: four tons. Will deliver all over the country,” and got ready to go back to his old job. Khawaga Dimitri reappeared in front of his house with some workers, who immediately started removing the rubble in preparation for rebuilding the house. The Territorial Army soldier who used to buy tangerines from Umm Hamidu reappeared. She saw him standing over her head, laughing, shaking his head and saving, “Oh tangerine vendor, tell me how much for a dozen.”