The First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 ended in a stalemate which halted the German advance in Egypt.
The Second Battle of El Alamein resulted in a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of WWII. The British 8th Army, under the command of Lt. General Bernard Montgomery, defeated Field Marshall Irwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps and essentially ended a serious threat to the Suez Canal and access to Middle Eastern oil fields.
Perhaps as important, this decisive victory raised morale at a point when little was going well for the Allies.