El Alamein museum and cemetery - more to this story - Churchill's quotation

 

El Alamein in Egypt

Curiosity Satisfied

El Alamein like so many battlefields is a mixture of facts, sadness and happiness. The facts are how the place operated before during and after battles. Facts - The big things such as the tanks. The small things such as the badges.  

Emotional Experience

Sadness - people who died. Especially in tragic circumstances. Or if they were your family members. 

Happiness, satisfaction, the safety precautions, the ingenuity, that a victory brought an end to the conflict, in that place, for the living, and the dead, on both sides. 

Sometimes, reconciliation,  between descendants on both sides, or veterans - especially between those who really did not want to be there! Some did not want to kill, some did not want to be killed, some did not understand what they were fighting for, some were homesick.

Sources Of Stories And Quotations

Wikipedia is a wonderful source, a wonderful resource. It started out using and combining the out of date Encyclopedias such as Brittanica, and the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Jewish Encyclopaedia, for all the historical stuff, and early science and culture, gradually adding updates from experts and individuals.

 Photo sources

Plus the photos. Now Flickr is just one source of photos. More photos are added directly to Wikipedia by authorities and by members of the public. 

El Alamein's Pivotal Part in WW2

My Interest

 

Wikipedia gave me a succinct guide to El Alamein, updated from when I last looked, with links to all sorts of outside sources. My late mother's first husband was killed at El Alamein which is what sparked my interest in a place I have not yet visited. However, I have visited many WWI and WW2 sites in Europe and the USA's civil war sites. Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, many is a statistic. Often one family member's involvement can inspire a lifelong fascination with everything to do with the whole of WWI, WW2 and wars any time and everywhere. As if somehow, some clue as to how those involved lived and died, how others traced ancestors, it all adds up. We cannot turn back the clock. But we can turn on the clock and create memorials and solve puzzles and mysteries. The past is a jigsaw. Sometimes one piece in the jigsaw is a date, death certificate, or photo, which sends you on a quest to find more pieces to create the full picture. 

The two exciting revelations on El Alamein - it was a turning point in the tide of WW2.

Churchill said, 'Before El Alamein, we never had a victory. After El Alamein, we never had a loss.'

Listen to the language. What makes it so memorable. Firstly the positive message. Secondly the actual language. Contrast, 'before, after'. Contrast, 'victory, loss'. Repetition, 'El Alamein, we never had'. 

For lovers of quotations, another famous quotation which I have often heard at meetings of Toastmasters International speakers' training clubs, and seen on the web is.

This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning.

We use this quotation to inspire ourselves and others to continue on with any venture. But churchill was referring to one particular incident. The battle of El Alamein.

After  the allied