1 The first units of the German Afrika Korps arriving at Tripoli harbour in February 1941, after the Italian defeat at Beda Fomm.
2 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel along with the Italian Governor of Libya, General Bastico.
3 Rommel’s command staff posing in front of a captured AEC Matador armoured command vehicle.
4 Rommel aboard his half-tracked command vehicle, named ‘Greif’ (griffin).
5 General Montgomery, wearing the Australian bush hat, standing atop a Crusader tank.
6 Eighth Army’s infantry advancing First World War style, with bayonets fixed.
7 Italian medium tanks of the Ariete Division.
8 German soldiers in the desert.
9 Two ‘Tommies’ manning a 2in. mortar.
10 German infantry marching in the desert.
11 A Universal Carrier and a Matilda infantry tank.
12 A German Panzer IV tank.
13 A German 88mm dual purpose gun in action.
14 Loading ammunition into a M3 Lee/Grant tank.
15 Close inspection of an abandoned German 88mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun.
16 An officer leading his men, holding a Webley pistol.
17 A lone Italian sentry of the Folgore Division overlooking the Qattara Depression, south of El Alamein.
18 A German engineer laying a mine in a desert track.
19 Italian 75mm self-propelled guns in the desert.
20 A short-barrelled 75mm Panzer IV German tank in the desert.
21 M3 medium Lee/Grant tanks moving in the desert.
22 The 2 pounder British anti-tank gun.
23 The American-built M4 Sherman tank.
24 A column of Valentine tanks crossing a mine-cleared lane at Alamein.
25 A Valentine tank carried by a Scammell tractor.
26 Clearing lanes across the Axis minefields at El Alamein.
27 A German command unit with motorcycles and a command Panzer III tank.
28 A line up of M4 Sherman tanks ready to go into action.
29 The new 6 pounder anti-tank gun.
30 A column of Italian light tanks in the desert.
31 A light M3 Stuart (or ‘Honey’) tank moving past a destroyed German Panzer III medium tank.
32 The early version of the long-barrelled 75mm gun Panzer IV German tank.
33 Two German Panzer IV tanks with the short-barrelled 75mm gun.
34 ‘For you the war is over’, a smiling ‘Tommy’ guarding Afrika Korps’ prisoners of war.
35 A German 50mm anti-tank gun, towed by a light half-tracked tractor.
36 A Crusader and a Lee/Grant tank moving in the desert.
37 A German defence pit with a heavy, tripod mounted MG34 machine gun.
38 The Universal or Bren Carrier.
39 Infantry advancing along with Valentine tanks.
40 A Crusader tank damaged and abandoned.
41 A Blenheim light bomber flying low over a British motorised column in the desert.
42 Tanks burning in front of the wire marking Rommel’s ‘devil’s garden’ of mined boxes on the Alamein defence line.
43 German General von Thoma.
44 An infantry squad in the desert, all wearing the khaki drill shirts and shorts.
45 Eighth Army’s soldiers capture the crew of a German Panzer III tank in the desert.
46 A destroyed Italian medium tank in the desert.
47 A German 20mm anti-aircraft gun mounted on a British 15cwt Bedford lorry.
48 Rommel with a group of Italian and German officers.
49 Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount of El Alamein, posing after the war in front of the relic of an Italian tank.
50 Marching past the wire.
Front cover: A Crusader tank of 7th Armoured Division. Perched on top the soldiers include: Ted Fogg, Jack Gadsden, Cyril Livings, Mick Savage, Sep Houghton and Phil Titheridge. Courtesy of Roger Fogg, The Desert Rats Scrapbook (The History Press, 2010)