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Covering the battle in El Alamein

Broadcast Date: Oct. 22, 1942

Matthew Halton, a London-based correspondent for the Toronto Star, has described overseas adventures for his Canadian audience over the past decade. As the Second World War rages into its third year, the British troops engage in fierce combat against the Axis army. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aches for a victory and wants to keep supply routes from the Mediterranean to the East open via El Alamein in Northern Egypt.

In a desert of sand and stone, Halton files this CBC Radio report on the second battle in El Alamein. In his trademark poetic style, he describes soldiers swimming in the sound of gunfire, the oasis of nature, the mountainous sand dunes and the oppressive desert climate. He is captivating as he describes the Allies' optimism. "At worst, we are hopeful," he says. "At best we are confident."

Covering the battle in El Alamein

• The Allied forces successfully pushed the Axis army out of Egypt through Libya and then into East Tunisia by May 13, 1943.
• Great Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that the victory at El Alamein marked a decisive turning point. "Before Alamein we never had a victory," he said. "After Alamein we never had a defeat."

• Matthew Halton was born on Sept. 7, 1904, in Pincher Creek, Alta. He attended the University of Alberta. To save money for graduate school, Halton worked as a teacher and an insurance salesman before travelling overseas to study at the University of London and the London School of Economics. His mother Mary Alice Halton was a writer for the Calgary Herald, the Lethbridge Herald, and the Pincher Creek Echo. She encouraged Matthew to write.

• In September 1932, Halton married Jean Jocelyn Campbell, his long-time university sweetheart. Campbell, like Halton, was trained as a schoolteacher. Shortly after, in 1932, Halton was hired by the Toronto Star. He was assigned overseas as the paper's London correspondent with instructions to go wherever he saw potential for articles.

• Halton's daughter Kathleen was born in 1937 and son David was born in 1940. During the Battle of Britain, the Haltons returned to Canada. In 1941, the Halton family stayed in Vancouver as Matthew travelled overseas again to cover the Battle of El Alamein.
• "Unless I am deaf, dumb, and blind, Germany is becoming a vast laboratory and breeding ground for war." – Matthew Halton, Ten Years to Alamein

• Halton's book Ten Years to Alamein was published in 1944. He dedicated the book to the British Eight Army with whom he "saw 'the end of the beginning' and the beginning of the revenge." The book chronicles the decade leading up to the battle in Egypt and pays attention to the political changes in the Middle East and Europe.

• The CBC hired Halton as its senior war correspondent in 1943. He delivered his first report for the CBC on Aug. 23, 1943. In a letter home, he wrote "I did my first CBC broadcast from Sicily today. At first, I had inhibitions about my broadcast for the CBC. I felt I should adopt some new technique but I suddenly realized I should just be myself and do my own stuff in my own way." – Life & Times: The Matthew Halton Story.

Covering the battle in El Alamein

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News Special

Broadcast Date: Oct. 22, 1942

Guest(s):

Reporter: Matthew Halton

Duration: 5:06

Last updated:
Aug. 14, 2003