El Alamein veterans reunite 60 years on

Up to 150 war veterans returned to El Alamein yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of one of the Second World War's most important battles.

British survivors of the bloody desert skirmish, almost all in uniform, were among those reunited on the battlefield. El Alamein, 60 miles south of Alexandria, Egypt, is where many historians believe the Allies first turned the tide of the war, their victory paving the way for the defeat of the Afrika Korps and German forces in Tunisia.

Yesterday, about 90 British old soldiers were joined by veterans from Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.

A memorial service was held in the afternoon to honour those who died, including 13,500 men from the British Empire and Commonwealth. Speeches were made and flowers laid for those buried at the military cemetery as well as for those never recoveredfrom the sand.

The Battle of El Alamein, a 13-day confrontation in October and November 1942, ended in a dramatic victory for Field Marshal Montgomery's Eighth Army, over Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox".

At the service yesterday, Montgomery's son appealed for a peaceful solution to thesituation with Iraq. "This ceremony is terribly important," said Lord Montgomery, 74. "People died on all sides and this is to be avoided in future."

One of the British survivors, Major Sam Bradshaw, 82, from Wigan, said: "Looking for the names of those people I knew who never came back – it's a very sad, very emotional feeling."