Second World War · 1940-1943

El Alamein and the war in North Africa

For three years armies fought back and forth along the coast of North Africa, with the Suez Canal as the prize. At El Alamein in 1942 the British Eighth Army stopped Rommel, and American landings trapped the Axis in Tunisia. Students follow the desert war on the map.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1938
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

For three years armies fought back and forth along the coast of North Africa, with the Suez Canal as the prize. At El Alamein in 1942 the British Eighth Army stopped Rommel, and American landings trapped the Axis in Tunisia. Students follow the desert war on the map.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why North Africa and the Suez Canal mattered in the Second World War.
  • Locate Tobruk, El Alamein and the Torch landings on the map.
  • Explain why El Alamein and the Allied victory in Tunisia changed the course of the war.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1938

The coast road

Open the map in 1938 and find Italy's colony of Libya and Egypt next to it. Follow the coast from Tripoli to Alexandria. Why did both sides fight along the coast and not deep in the desert?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1938

El Alamein

Zoom in on El Alamein, west of Alexandria. Ask the atlas: "Why was El Alamein a good place for the British to make a stand?"

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1938

Operation Torch

Move west to Morocco and Algeria. In November 1942 American and British troops landed at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. Why were the Axis armies now caught between two fires?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why was the Suez Canal so important to Britain and its empire?
  2. In the desert, water and fuel mattered as much as tanks. Why?
  3. Soldiers from India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Free French fought in North Africa. Why is "the British army" a misleading name?
  4. Churchill later wrote: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat." Check it against the dates. Is it true?
  5. For the people of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, this was a war between foreign armies on their land. How might they have seen it?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hannibal Barca, who also fought great campaigns across North Africa and the Mediterranean. Then compare his problems of supply and distance with those of Rommel and Montgomery.

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.