Editing First Battle of El Alamein (section)

===Miteirya Ridge (Ruin Ridge)===
To relieve pressure on Ruweisat ridge, Auchinleck ordered the Australian 9th Division to make another attack from the north. In the early hours of 17 July, the Australian 24th Brigade—supported by 44th [[Royal Tank Regiment]] (RTR) and strong fighter cover from the air—assaulted Miteirya ridge<ref name= "Playfair351"/> (known as "Ruin ridge" to the Australians). The initial night attack went well, with 736 prisoners taken, mostly from the Italian ''[[102nd Motorized Division "Trento"|Trento]]'' and ''[[101st Motorized Division "Trieste"|Trieste]]'' motorised divisions. Once again, however, a critical situation for the Axis forces was retrieved by vigorous counter-attacks from hastily assembled German and Italian forces, which forced the Australians to withdraw back to their start line with 300 casualties.<ref name="Playfair351"/><ref>{{harvnb|Johnston|Stanley|2002|pp=83–85}}.</ref><ref>Maughan (1966), [http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/histories/19/chapters/12.pdf pp. 572–574] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208210804/https://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/histories/19/chapters/12.pdf |date=8 December 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Stewart|2002|p=130}}.</ref> Although the Australian Official History of the 24th Brigade's [[2/32nd Battalion (Australia)|2/32nd Battalion]] describes the counter-attack force as "German",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11283.asp |publisher=Australian War Memorial |title=Australians at War: 2/32 Battalion |access-date=27 December 2007 |work=Australian War Memorial website}}</ref> the Australian historian Mark Johnston reports that German records indicate that it was the ''Trento'' Division that overran the Australian battalion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Mark |title=Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and Their Adversaries in World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOgMy7rBFCoC&pg=PA13 |date=16 April 2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-78222-7 |page=13}}</ref>{{efn|Barton Maughan—Australia's official historian—has written that "two forward platoons of the 2/32nd's left company were overrun, 22 men were taken prisoner"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/awm52/8/AWM52-8-3-36-016.pdf |title=Maughan (1966), p. 575 |access-date=6 January 2008 |archive-date=27 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227210124/http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/awm52/8/AWM52-8-3-36-016.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> but fails to shed more light on this attack.}}