29. Flim Flam Works
Operation Bertram’s deception worked. When the Battle of El Alamein commenced with a massive artillery bombardment on the night of October 23rd, 1942, Axis commanders were surprised that the British Eighth Army’s main thrust came in the north, and not in the south as they had expected.
As British planners had predicted, fuel shortages prevented the Axis from effectively redeploying troops from the southern sector to reinforce and meet the threat to the north. The battle ended in a complete British victory, and a retreat that culminated six months later in the complete surrender of all Axis forces in North Africa.