At the time of Battle of Alamein, Eighth Army had two Troops of &lt;a href="London%20Electrical%20Engineers"&gt;27th (London Electrical Engineers) S/L Rgt&lt;/a&gt; under command for area AA protection, but five of these lights were used to assist assaulting troops in direction-keeping during the night attack that launched the battle (Operation Lightfoot). No attempt was made to illuminate the sky (the battle was fought in full moonlight, though this was much obscured by dust).