committed to the fighting in the northern sector. Before dawn on 10 July, as Rommel focused his efforts on the southern flank of the battlefield, the 9th Division attacked the north flank of the enemy positions and captured the strategic high ground around Tel el Eisa. In the days following, Rommel redirected his forces against them, in a series of intense counterattacks, but was unable to dislodge the Australians. On 22 July, the 24th and 26th Brigades attacked German positions on the ridges south of Tel el Esia, suffering heavy casualties taking positions on Tel el Eisa Ridge and Makh Khad Ridge. The final phase of the First Battle of El Alamein was a disaster for the Allies and the 2/28th Battalion in particular: an attempt to capture Sanyet el Miteiriya, known as "Ruin Ridge", on 27 July. The operation was part of a complex series of night attacks. The 2/28th suffered significant casualties and vehicle losses in its advance, but achieved its objective. However, the battalion was soon surrounded by German infantry. A planned advance by British tanks failed and German tanks arrived. The 2/28th's positions came under a prolonged and methodical attack by the Axis forces. By the time they surrendered, 65 Australians had been killed. Although the vast majority of the 2/28th had become prisoners of war, 93 members of the battalion remained behind Allied lines and it was subsequently rebuilt. Second Battle of El Alamein Following the fighting in July, the 9th Division remained in front-line positions around El Alamein, but were engaged in mainly static defensive duties for the next three months. Nevertheless, patrols were maintained and some raiding was undertaken, including a raid on 1 September undertaken by the 2/15th Battalion to seize a point south-west of Tel el Eisa in which 150 Germans were killed and another 140 taken prisoner, against which the Australians lost 39 killed, 109 wounded and another 25 missing. By late October 1942, the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, decided to launch its own offensive in the Western Desert, amassing a force of some 220,000 personnel supported by 1,100 tanks and 900 artillery pieces. The 9th Division was positioned in the northern sector of the Eighth Army's front at El Alamein, nearest the coast, as part of British XXX Corps. This sector was to effect the main thrust of the Allied attack. While XIII and most