32. Operation Bertram, the Plan to Outfox the Desert Fox
The El Alamein battlefield was bounded to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the south by the Qattara Depression, impassable to armor and wheeled vehicles. Operation Bertram sought to fool Erwin Rommel about where the British planned to strike. That was important because Rommel faced fuel shortages that made redeploying his troops, particularly the Italians, difficult or even impossible once fighting began. Wherever Rommel deployed his forces, that is where most of them would stay during the battle. So the British sought to convince him to deploy them in the wrong place.