Attritional warfare could be key in Ukraine as at El Alamein 80 years ago, historian says

A military historian says attritional tactics, as used by the British Army to defeat Nazi Germany in the battle of El Alamein in Egypt 80 years ago, could play a major role in the Ukraine war.

Attritional warfare is described as the way in which one side wears down the other to the point of collapse, through loss of manpower or equipment.

Sunday 23 October marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the second battle of El Alamein.

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The British victory was the beginning of the end of the Western Desert Campaign.

The battle in 1942 lasted 19 days.  A few months previously, General Bernard Montgomery was appointed commander of the 8th Army, and his attritional tactics in the first phase of the battle are still used in modern warfare.

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."