In 1940 the Germans had swept British forces out of Europe and seemed posed to invade the British Isles. Demoralized from months of hard fighting and numerous defeats, the British Army seemed incapable of stemming the onslaught of Axis land forces and were yet to have won a major land battle against the Germans. El Alamein is the story of how this seemingly defeated army turned near-defeat into victory with a hard-fought, four-month long battle in the harsh North African desert, finally revealing that the Germans were not invincible and providing an immense morale boost to the Allied participants, their leaders and those waiting anxiously at home.-- Jacket.