In 1942, British troops belonging to the British Eighth Army defeated Italian and German personnel in El Alamein, Egypt.

A turning point in the North African campaign in the Second World War, Britain used the victory as a springboard to defeat the German and Italian threat to the Middle East.

Historian Rupert Wieloch, who described Montgomery as an "outstanding positional defence attritionist", said that similar tactics have been seen in Ukraine's defence against Russian invasion, and could be key to handling potentially wet and cold conditions in the winter months.

He told Forces News: "The attritionist doctrine very much stayed on the western front for many years after El Alamein because it was seen as being highly successful in crumbling away at the Axis forces because of the numbers, just a question of mass.

"If you look at what's happening in Ukraine, how it originally started was as a mobile battle, but like so many, we got bogged down in a frontline, and the effect of anti-tank weapon systems and artillery systems has really dominated the battle during the summer and in the second phase of the war, as we see it now.

"Who knows what's going to happen over the winter."

Are there still valuable lessons 80 years on for the war in Ukraine?


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