There have been a few occasions in world affairs when Australians troops have played a key role in the main battles in the main theatre of conflict.
One was on the Western Front in the closing months of World War I but most recently - 75 years ago - in the North African desert at a place called El Alamein.
This battle was fought from October 23 to November 5, 1942 and was a significant event of World War II, turning the tide of Axis might in Africa.
El Alamein showed German forces could be beaten. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat."
This was the last solely Commonwealth victory, involving troops of Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Rhodesia. Thereafter Americans would do much of the fighting in Western Europe.
For Australia, the main participants were the 9th Division whose 18,000 soldiers fought at Tobruk, El Alamein and then New Guinea and Borneo - cumulatively more time in frontline combat than any other Australian division.
Australian War Memorial senior historian Dr Karl James said El Alamein was a strong Australian story, although the diggers formed part of a large multinational force.
It was taking place while the desperate fighting on the Kokoda Track attracted national attention.
As well, the notable achievements of the 9th Division soldiers at El Alamein were somewhat overshadowed by the epic 241-day siege of the Libyan port city of Tobruk, when they became known as the "Rats of Tobruk.".
Yet El Alamein was the main event.
"Alamein and the war in the Mediterranean is where you have Australian forces playing a major role in the major theatre at the time against the major enemies, the Germans and the Italians," James said.
"Our involvement with Alamein is a much bigger story but it has become overshadowed. It wasn't always like that."
At the start of the North Africa campaign, Australian and British troops pushed Italian forces aside, prompting Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to call for German assistance.
Then the Afrika Korps, commanded by General Erwin Rommel, relentlessly forced back the Allied forces, with the front finally stabilising near an obscure Egyptian railway siding called El Alamein.
There, new British commander General Bernard Montgomery planned his offensive, ultimately involving 220,000 men, 1100 tanks and 900 field guns.
German forces, plus those of their Italian allies, were smaller but they were holding strong defences behind deep minefields.
With one end of the line on the Mediterranean Ocean and the other on the impassable Qattara Depression in Egypt's northwest, there was no alternative to a frontal attack, launched in the evening of October 23 with a thundering artillery barrage.
James says El Alamein isn't an easy battle to follow and the outcome certainly wasn't clear in the first few days.
The attack was mounted all along the 60-kilometre front, though the main thrust was at the north end, where the 9th Division was fighting with its right flank against the ocean.
In a series of night attacks, brigades of the 9th Division made steady progress against increasing resistance, though nowhere on the long front could it be said a breakthrough appeared imminent.
Concerned that their forces in the north could be isolated, the Germans transferred reinforcements from the centre.
Montgomery's mastery was in recognising the right moment to launch a fresh thrust, which came on November 2 with a massed armoured attack called Operation Supercharge.
"The advantage Monty was that he had his plan. It wasn't working after two or three days but he could see what was occurring and he changed the plan to suit the situation. The outcome at Alamein is very patchy for the first couple of days," James said.
But before a breakout could occur, the diggers faced tough fighting and sustained significant casualties. In their second attack on the night of October 28, they withstood no less than 25 German counter-attacks.
The third attack, on October 30, placed four battalions astride the vital coast road. Historian Chris Clark said the German response was of unbelievable ferocity, involving attacks by tank and infantry.
The Australians held but their commander, Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, realised they couldn't endure much longer - one battalion started out with almost 700 men and was down to 41.
On the night of October 31, Morshead replaced the exhausted 26th Brigade with fresh troops of the 24th Brigade - and just in time as two German divisions fell on the Australian positions. That night Montgomery launched Supercharge and after hard fighting, achieved the key breakthrough.
The 9th Division incurred its last casualties on November 4. In all 620 were killed, with almost 2000 wounded and 130 taken prisoner.
As many died in this week of fighting as did in four months of Kokoda.
Subsequently the 9th Division returned to Australia, joining the Pacific war with a landing at Lae in late 1943.
Clark, author of Where Australians Fought - The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, cites 9th Division performance at El Alamein as absolutely thrilling stuff, fighting off repeated counter-attacks, then being replaced in the nick of time.
"The 9th Division played a pivotal role in one of the epic battles of the Second World War," he said.
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