Apr12 Egyptcoursebattle
Published: Last updated:
Egypt is determined to become a major golf destination ‘player’ but their bid to create a golf resort on a World War Two El Alamein battlefield site has met strong opposition from British war veterans, including the famed Desert Rats.
The old soldiers can’t believe that Egyptian businessmen are even contemplating building a golf course on the hallowed ground where their friends and colleagues perished during the battles which led to Field Marshal Montgomery’s Desert Rats famously defeating Rommel’s Afrika Korps.
Allied and German forces twice met in the desert area around El Alamein in 1942 before the Eighth Army, commanded by Montgomery, finally thwarted the Germans’ bid to expand into North Africa and control the Suez Canal.
John Connolly of the City of Manchester Eighth Army Veterans’ Association, hit out at the project saying: “It’s absolutely scandalous. The battlefield should be preserved for posterity as a tribute to all the brave soldiers who fell there.
“Many of us visited El-Alamein in 2002 for the 60th anniversary of the battle and were hugely moved by what we saw.We paid tribute to all those who died, including the Germans and Italians. There is no place for golf courses on a battlefield of this sort.”
The public-private project initiative involves building luxury villas and a golf course near the coastal town 106km west of Alexandra and developers say the venture will rid the region of millions of mines which have remained there since 1942.
No doubt the huge bomb and mine craters will provide a unique and interesting course layout…if the scheme gets off the ground that is. Watch this space…
Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images
