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Three major battles occurred around El Alamein between July and November 1942 and were the turning point of the war in North Africa. The Australian 9th Division, led by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, played a key role in two of these battles.

The Battle of El Alamein was primarily fought between two of the outstanding commanders of the Second World War, General Bernard Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed General Claude Auchinleck, and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. By the end of June, Rommel had forced the Allies back deep into Egypt, and the Allies were pinning all their hopes on their new defensive position near the tiny railway stop of El Alamein where the battlefield narrowed between the coast and the impassable Qattara Depression. Rommel made a major attack on July 1, hoping to dislodge the Allies from the area, take Alexandria, and open the way to Cairo and the Suez Canal.

Before dawn on 10 July, Rommel again launched an offensive in 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. Rommel, taken by surprise was forced to redirect his army in a series of intense counterattacks, but the Australians held firm. Fighting continued for most of July but by the end of the month both sides had fought each other to a standstill. Montgomery assumed command of the Eighth Army in mid-August and set about making positive changes. The Allied army grew in strength whilst Rommels forces were weakening, their supply lines being strangled by Allied air and naval attacks. On the last day of August Rommel launched another offensive in a last and desperate attempt to oust the Allies from the Alamein line, amassing his forces in the southern sector and driving the Allies back to the Alam el Halfa Ridge. The Allied strength, however, soon proved itself as they pushed Rommels forces back over the next few days. On the night of 23 October the Allies launched an offensive and even though the infantry successfully captured most of their objectives, Rommels forces stubbornly held their lines. Montgomery changed tactics from the drive westwards and ordered the Australians of 9th Division to switch their attack northward. What followed was a week of extremely fierce fighting, with the Australians grinding their way forward over well-defended enemy positions. As had happened in July, their gains so worried Rommel that he again diverted his strongest units to stop them. With his attention on the Australians in the north, his line in the south was weakened and on 2 November the British tanks struck a decisive blow. Rommel knew that he was beaten and on 4 November, started his retreat.

The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943.

Between July and November 1942, the Australian 9th Division suffered almost 6,000 casualties.