Catafalque commander Sgt Reg Grundell holds a cross while Cpl Donna Vigorelli, right, stands guard.

Members of Op Mazurka, the Australian contingent in the Sinai, have commemorated one of the pivotal engagements of WW2 - the Battle of El Alamein.

Five soldiers from Op Mazurka Contingent 16A joined other soldiers from New Zealand as members of the military guard and catafalque party in a moving memorial service at the El Alamein Commonwealth War Cemetery, held on October 19 in Egypt.

Capt Andy Weir said the invitation from the British Ambassador to Egypt to take part in the service, attended by more than 200 people, had provided "a lasting memory" for himself and the four soldiers - Cpl Donna Vigorelli, Cpl Dan Keen, Sgt Reg Grundell and WO1 Degenaro.

The cemetery contains the graves of more than 1000 Australians who died in the Western Desert campaigns of WW2. Australian divisions were part of the British 8th Army, led by General Bernard "Monty" Montgomery, which defeated the German Afrika Korps, led by Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Capt Weir said the Battle of El Alamein ranked both strategically and psychologically as a decisive battle of WW2.

"This clash ... decided the fate of North Africa and the oil fields of the Middle East," he said.

"More importantly the battle destroyed the myth of invincibility that surrounded Rommel's Afrika Corps particularly, and the German Army generally."

"Many historians saw this victory as a turning point in the Allied campaign and as such it holds a special place in Australia's military history."

Capt Weir said not many Australians had the opportunity to visit WW2 battlefields because they tended to be in locations "out of the way".