Eighth Army comprised two Corps: XXX Corps under Lieutenant-General Willoughby Norrie and XIII Corps under Lieutenant-General Reade Godwin-Austen. XXX Corps was made up of British 7th Armoured Division (commanded by Major-General William Gott), South African 1st Infantry Division (newly arrived from the East African Campaign and commanded by Major-General George Brink) and 22nd Guards Brigade. XIII Corps comprised 4th Indian Infantry Division (commanded by Major-General Frank Messervy), the newly arrived the 2nd New Zealand Division (commanded by Major-General Bernard Freyberg) and the 1st Army Tank Brigade. Eighth Army also included the Tobruk garrison where the gallant but exhausted Australian 9th Division under Major-General Leslie Morshead had been replaced by the British 70th Infantry Division, under Major-General Ronald Scobie, and the Polish Carpathian Brigade which were brought in by the Royal Navy. http://louis1j1sheehan.usIn reserve Eighth Army had South African 2nd Infantry Division making a total of 7 divisions with 770 tanks (including many of the new Crusader Cruiser tanks, after which the operation was named, as well as the American light Stuart). Tactical air support was provided by 1,000 planes under the command of Air HQ Western Desert.
Opposing them were the hardened veterans of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps comprising the 15th Panzer Division, 21st Panzer Division (total of 260 Panzers ) together with the understrength Afrika Division which was redesignated the 90th Light Infantry Division in late November. Supporting them were the Italian Ariete Armoured Division and 6 under-strength Italian infantry divisions (the Savona, Pavia, Trento, Trieste Motorised, Brescia and Bologna divisions) with 154 tanks organized into 3 corps. Rommel had built a defensive line along the escarpment running from near the sea at Sollum towards the Quattara depression inland. The 21st Panzer and Savona divisions manned these defences whilst Rommel kept the rest of his forces grouped near the Tobruk perimeter where a planned attack on November 14 had been put back.[2] Axis Air support consisted of 120 German and 200 Italian planes.
The plan was to engage the Afrika Korps with the British 7th Armoured Division while the South African Division covered their left flank. Meanwhile, on their right, XIII Corps, supported by 4th Armoured Brigade (detached from 7th Armoured Division), would make a clockwise flanking advance west of Sidi Omar and hold position threatening the rear of the line of Axis defensive strongpoints which ran east from Sidi Omar to the coast at Halfaya. Central to the plan was the destruction of the Axis armour by 7th Armoured Division to allow the relatively lightly armoured XIII Corps to advance north to Bardia on the coast whilst XXX Corps continued northwest to Tobruk and link with a planned breakout by 70th Division. http://louis1j1sheehan.us
Before dawn on 18 November, Eighth Army launched a surprise attack, advancing west from its base at Mersa Matruh and crossing the Libyan border near Fort Maddalena, some 50 miles (80 km) south of Sidi Omar, and then pushing to the northwest. Eighth Army were relying on the Desert Air Force to provide them with two clear days without serious air opposition but torrential rain and storms the night before the offensive resulted in the cancellation of all the air-raids planned to interdict the Axis airfields and destroy their aircraft on the ground.[3] However, initially all went well for the Allies. 7th Armoured division's 7th Armoured Brigade advanced northwest towards Tobruk with 22nd Armoured Brigade to their left. XIII Corps and New Zealand Division made its flanking advance with 4th Armoured Brigade on its left and 4th Indian Division's 7th Infantry Brigade on its right flank at Sidi Omar. On the first day no resistance was encountered as Eighth Army closed on the enemy positions. http://louis1j1sheehan.us
On the morning of 19 November 22nd Armoured Brigade made contact with the armour of the Ariete Division at Bir el Gubi and a day long battle ensued. In the division's center 7th Armoured Brigade and the 7th Support Group raced forward almost to within sight of Tobruk and took Sidi Rezegh airfield while on the right flank 4th Armoured Brigade came into contact that evening with a force of 60 tanks supported by 88mm gun batteries and anti-tank units[4] from 21st Panzer Division (which had been moving south from Gambut) and became heavily engaged.[5]
On 20 November 22nd Armoured Brigade fought a second engagement with the Ariete Division and 7th Armoured Brigade repulsed an infantry counter-attack by the 90th Light and Bologna Divisions at Sidi Rezegh. 4th Armoured Brigade fought a second engagement with 21st Panzer pitting their Stuart tanks' greater speed against the enemy's heavier guns.
Eighth Army were fortunate at this time that 15th Panzer Division had been ordered to Sidi Azeiz where there was no British armour to engage. However, 4th Armoured Brigade soon started to receive intelligence that the two German Panzer divisions were linking up. In his original battle plan Cunningham had hoped for this so that he would be able to bring his own larger tank force to bear and defeat the Afrika Korps armour. However, by attaching 4th Armoured Brigade to XIII Corps, allowing 22nd Armoured Brigade to be sidetracked fighting the Ariete Division and letting 7th Armoured Brigade to forge towards Tobruk, his armoured force was by this time hopelessly dispersed. 22nd Armoured Brigade were therefore disengaged from the Ariete and ordered to move east and support 4th Armoured Brigade (while infantry and artillery elements of 1st South African Division were to hold the Ariete) and 4th Armoured were released from their role of defending XIII Corps' flank.[6]
In the afternoon of 20 November 4th Armoured were engaged with 15th Panzer Division (21st Panzer having temporarily withdrawn for lack of fuel and ammunition). It was too late in the day for a decisive action but 4th Armoured nevertheless lost some 40 tanks and by this time were down to less than two-thirds their original strength of 164 tanks. 22nd Armoured arrived at dusk, too late to have an impact, and during the night of the 20th Rommel pulled all his tanks northwest for an attack on Sidi Rezegh.
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