Operation MAZ6

'MAZ6' was a British naval undertaking to prevent the Axis forces of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel’s Deutsch-Italienische Panzerarmee benefiting from any seaborne effort to evacuate men and equipment after the Axis defeat in the 2nd Battle of El Alamein (4/6 November 1942).

During the night of 4/5 November, six motor torpedo boats and two motor launches swept the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea’s south-east coast from Alexandria westward to Mersa Matruh, with the escort destroyers Aldenham, Croome, Exmoor and Hurworth at anchor at El Kot to provide heavier firepower if any such evacuation was discovered. During the night of 5/6 November, four motor torpedo boats searched the coast from Alexandria, Egypt, to the Libyan border for any Axis ship activity while two of the same force of escort destroyers remained at El Kot as a striking force.