The Libyan desert outpost of El Agheila was a focal point of fighting between the Axis Afrika Korps and the British Eighth Army. The enemies came together there in 1941 and again in November and December 1942. The Allied forces commanded by Sir Bernard Montgomery had chased the German armies over seven hundred miles from their furthest penetration, El Alamein, Egypt. Field Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps legions were in a desperate race to reach Tripoli. From there they hoped to link up with General Nehring in Tunisia.