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Private J. D. Caves: The Long Journey Home

Excerpt from Early Battles of The Eighth Army

Excerpt from Early Battles of The Eighth Army

This passage describes the prelude to the Battle of Sidi Rezegh.

In 1941 General Wavell's Western Desert Force was reorganised into the Eighth Army, after Rommel had arrived in Tripoli and reversed Wavell's earlier successes against the Italians. Churchill replaced Wavell with General Sir Claude Auchinleck, previously Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) India. Reinforcements poured into Egypt: 600 tanks, 800 guns, Indian infantrymen from Syria, South Africans from Abyssinia, where they had played a major part in another rout of the Italians, and New Zealanders back from their ordeals in Greece and Crete.

The principal infantry formation was XIII Corps. This contained the three brigades of the 2nd New Zealand Division, led by Major General Bernard Freyberg VC, and the three brigades of the 4th Indian Division. The 1st Army Tank Brigade provided support.

The main armoured formation was XXX Corps. This was the British 7th Armoured Division with its famous badge of the jerboa, the desert rat. Also part of XXX Corps was the 1st South African Division.

German Mark III Panzer with short 50mm gun.

German Mark III Panzer with short 50mm gun.

On the opposing side was an Axis army nominally commanded by the Italian General Ettore Bastico, but taking its operational orders from Rommel. Infantry was the Italian XXI Corps and the German 90th Light Division. Rommel's armoured formations were the German Afrika Korps and the Italian XX Corps, which consisted of the Ariete (armoured) and Trieste (motorized) Divisions. The armoured divisions were considerably weaker than their British 8th Army opponents. The Italian tanks were obsolete and described as 'useless death traps' and 'mobile coffins.' The Afrika Korps had almost 250 German tanks, but 70 of these were Mark IIs armed only with machine guns, and 35 were Mark IVs unsuitable for action against hostile armour. Rommel did, however, have one great advantage. He possessed 96 50mm long-barrelled anti-tank guns, more effective than the British 2-pounders. In addition he had 35 of the even more deadly 88mm anti-aircraft guns, which in their desert role of tank-destroyers had already earned a reputation as formidable as it was well-deserved.

Tobruk was isolated, but being held by the famous 'Rats of Tobruk', many of them Australian. The Allies launched an offensive to relieve Tobruk: Operation Crusader. There was an apparently justifiable belief that 8th Army, as Churchill proclaimed in a stirring signal to Auchinleck, would 'add a page to history which will rank with Blenheim and with Waterloo.'

Auchinleck, however, was not on good terms with Churchill and seemed to go out of his way to ignore good advice from Churchill and others. Luckily all this drama at headquarters made little practical difference at the time. While it was taking place, Crusader was being won by the officers and men of the 8th Army - with the unintentional assistance of the enemy commander.