Scratch Post

01 November 2009

[Self] El-Alamein

I have a semi-proposal to work on, but I thought I'd complete this entry before I forgot about the details.

El-Alamein, to be honest I only heard of this great battlefield only when I started blasting up my friends in BattleField 1942 many years ago when there were less grey hairs ... El-Alamein was a map with lots of tanks blasting tanks. And later on I read more on Rommel, and read more on WWII that I knew more about it.

For a really cool overview check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_el_alamein.shtml

So when I had a chance to be at Alexandria, I decided to dedicate 1 full day to the place which was at least 80 mins drive out (each way). And it was worth it. My friend Fredrik came along for the long haul.

We first arrived at the German Memorial. It was grand, stoic, proud and so very .... German. And this is the place where Rommel's forces blitzkrieged across Africa and supported the Italians, till he was stopped by Monty's overwhelming Allied forces.

At the German Memorial, I was touristy and marveled at the place, the history and took lots of pics. A sweeping romanticism swept across me as I imagined how it must have been like some 60odd years ago....



















And then ... we got our driver (courtesy of Karim's relative) to take us to another spot some 20 km away to the Allied Forces' Memorial. This was a very different memorial, more traditional in the sense it was tombstones lined up. The memorial was very well kept. And I strolled across line and lines of the graves.
At first, it was me marvelling at how many had fallen, how many nationalities were involved, how young they were, which regiment and/or part of the military they came from ... It was strongly sunny the entire day, and it was so as I walked on.
But then after going through the many columns of the fallen, a sense of sorrow began to descend on me..... thick grey clouds swarmed to block the sun, the sky darkened and a cold wind swept past. I could not shake off the chills as the war-bravado and heroics didn't make sense anymore. And as the clouds parted and the sunshine swept to illuminate the memorial again, I saw the battle in a different light for the human tragedy it meant. I did tear up, but held it back, and walked off with a very heavy heart.
Memorial #3 was the Italian Memorial. Oddly it was "near" the German Memorial, so we did a large u-turn. From afar, the Italian Memorial didn't really stand out but it was the only structure visible in a vast landscape of sand, so we arrived there based on an educated guess and a badly placed roadsign.
The front gate was at the roadside, but the memorial was a long walk in with very well kept garden (the butterflies were hell-scary though). The walk in required one to wade through a path of sand with scattered chunks of gravel and stones. I walked in with draggy feet so I could enjoy the sound of the small stones crunching into the ground as they frictioned against themselves...
And the Italian Memorial was elegant and simple. It was well structured and nicely thought out in design. Once again, a different culture and a different way of expressing honour to the dead, built into every detail of the building.
In the centre, the Virgin Mary looked over an altar there was a sense of tranquility that swept across the memorial centre and the 2 wings that housed names of the fallen Italian soldiers, inclusive some of the unidentified too.
An old Egyptian caretaker who spoke Italian sold me cards, and I made a small donation as thanks.















There is supposed to be a Tunisian Memorial, but we weren't sure where it was and decided to go back due to time constraints. El-Alamein was tiring but a very soul fulfilling trip.