The Battle of El Alamein in the autumn of 1942 ended the victorious march of the "Desert Fox" Erwin Rommel and with it any hope of the Axis powers to gain control of the Suez Canal. This dealt a decisive blow to the British war efforts. While the popular image of desert warfare is still shaped by the notion of lightning advances by German tanks, El Alamein was more of a battle of attrition and material. The Axis powers were at a disadvantage from the very beginning. Alexander Querengässer corrects some widespread misconceptions about the war in North Africa in his book. While the Germans had been able to impose a mobile warfare on their opponents until then, the British 8th Army succeeded at El Alamein in halting Rommel's advance, solidifying the front, and later operating with great material superiority.