Half A Chance

On the second day of Operation Crusader, the southwest flank of the Axis front was occupied by the Italian Ariete Armored Division. Alerted that a British attack was imminent, they had prepared defenses behind areas of low-lying ground turned boggy …

1941-11-19

21

On the second day of Operation Crusader, the southwest flank of the Axis front was occupied by the Italian Ariete Armored Division. Alerted that a British attack was imminent, they had prepared defenses behind areas of low-lying ground turned boggy by heavy rains. Skillfully camouflaged, the men and guns of Ariete stood ready for the first British tanks to appear. On the morning of the 19th a patrol from the 132nd Tank Regiment met and was routed by the lead British squadron. following doctrine, the British tanks immediately charged after the fleeing Italians and ran head-on into the infantry and AT positions of the reinforced 8th Bersaglieri Regiment, where they were stopped cold. The 3rd CLY was then ordered to make a flanking move to the northeast, but while attempting to do so was met by a determined counterattack of the entire 132nd Tank Regiment. The battle raged throughout the day, with Crusaders repeatedly charging the Italian guns through artillery concentrations and volleys of AP shells. Finally, after the loss of more than 40 of its 150+ tanks, the British were forced to withdraw. Italian morale soared, for the men of the Ariete had shown at last that, given half a chance, they could engage the enemy and emerge victorious.

Bir El Gubi, Libya

The Action at Bir el Gubi (November 1941) took place on 19 November 1941 near Biʾr al-Ġubbiyy, Libya. It was one of the opening engagements of Operation Crusader and the first tank engagement in North Africa where Italian armoured forces achieved a success, after their poor performance during Operation Compass. On 15 November 1941 General Claude Auchinleck, commander of the Eighth Army, launched Operation Crusader, aimed at forcing the Axis army in Libya to lift the siege of Tobruk and if possible, to force the Axis to retreat from Cyrenaica. The Eighth Army was composed of the XIII Corps, formed of infantry divisions, and XXX Corps, which included the 7th Armoured Division, formerly belonging to the Western Desert Force and one of the authors of the destruction of the Tenth Army during Operation Compass. The British plan was to circumvent the Italo-German positions on their southern side with the 7th Armoured Division, and then to attack the Axis forces besieging Tobruk. Erwin Rommel was planning a new attack on Tobruk and had therefore gathered his forces on the north-west, between Tobruk and the Egyptian border, near the coast. The Ariete Division was given the task of facing the XIII Corps (on the eastern flank) and defending the road junction at Bir el Gubi, from where supplies headed for Bir Hakeim, Giarabub, Sidi Omar, Tobruk and El Adem were sent.

Wikipedia: Action at Bir el Gubi (November 1941)

British

Italian