Len Moore fought with the 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps 2/KRRC across the deserts of North Africa during WW2 from 1941 to 1943. In July 1942 he was involved in the fighting at the El Alamein Line.

Len Moore 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps

The El Alamein line, which all three of our battalions reached on 1 July, 1942 for the 2nd and 9th arrived in the southern half with 7th Motor Brigade on that day needs some explanation, in that it bore no resemblance at that time to the defensive belt it later became and never resembled the fortress visualized by the public at home.

The Alamein positions had been subtly pictured to us during the withdrawal from Mersa Matruh as impregnable fortifications behind which we should find rest and an opportunity to reorganize. Even the most skeptical had come almost to believe this legend, and our tired imaginations conjured up visions of a kind of steel and concrete drawbridge opening to admit us and then closing with a reassuring clang as the last truck passed through. Reality was very different. The only signs of prepared positions the 2nd Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps encountered were spasmodic diggings and strands of wire reminiscent of the ill-fated positions of Knightsbridge and El Adem.

Italian Prisoners taken during the Battle for the El Alamein Line July 1942 in the North African Desert