During early 1942, the Axis forces had advanced steadily through northwest Egypt. It was decided that the British Eighth Army should make a stand just over west of Alexandria, at the railway siding of El Alamein, where the coastal plain narrowed between the Mediterranean Sea and the inhospitable Qattara Depression. On 26 June 1942, the 9th Division was ordered to begin moving from northern Syria to El Alamein. On 1July, "Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel's forces made a major attack, hoping to dislodge the Allies from the area, take Alexandria, and open the way to Cairo and the Suez Canal. This attack resulted in the First Battle of El Alamein. The Eighth Army had regrouped sufficiently to repel the Axis forces and launch counter-attacks. On 6July, the lead elements of the 9th Division arrived at Tel el Shammama from the front, from where they would be committed to the fighting in the northern sector.