Short answers, pulled from the story.
The First Battle of El Alamein was fought from the 1st to the 27th of July 1942. It was part of the Western Desert campaign of World War II, fought in Egypt between Axis forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Allied forces under General Claude Auchinleck.
El Alamein sat between the Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara Depression, a vast sunken salt flat impassable to armour. This narrow corridor, roughly 40 miles wide, prevented Rommel from outflanking the position to the south, as he had done at Gazala. The Ruweisat Ridge, 10 miles south of the station, also provided excellent observation over the surrounding desert.
The battle ended in a stalemate. The Eighth Army halted the Axis advance on Alexandria and Cairo but could not achieve a decisive breakthrough. Allied casualties in July exceeded 13,000 while the Axis lost approximately 7,000 prisoners. On the 31st of July 1942, General Auchinleck ordered an end to offensive operations.
General Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, personally took command of the Eighth Army on the 25th of June 1942 after relieving Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie. Following the battle, Auchinleck himself was replaced; Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery assumed command on the 13th of August 1942.
The Australian 9th Division entered the line in the north on the 4th of July 1942 and fought a series of costly battles for Tel el Eisa. Australian forces took more than 3,700 prisoners in that sector and inflicted an estimated 2,000 Axis casualties. The capture of German Signals Intercept Company 621 was among the most significant results, as it had been supplying Rommel with intelligence from British radio communications.
Charles Upham was a New Zealand army officer who was awarded a second Victoria Cross for his actions during the First Battle of Ruweisat Ridge on the 15th of July 1942. Despite being shot through the elbow by a machine gun bullet, he destroyed a German tank, several guns, and vehicles using grenades before being captured along with approximately 380 other New Zealanders when the anti-tank defences were overrun.