Photograph of a British infantryman in desert fatigues advancing with fixed-bayonet and a shell bursting in background, El Alamein, 1942. One of seven black and white official photographic prints relating to the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, 1942. Associated with El Alamein, World War Two, North Africa (1940-1943). At the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October-4 November 1942) Allied forces in Egypt under the command of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery broke the Axis lines and forced them in a retreat that pushed them all the way back to Tunisia.