Three Kings

The 7th Armored Division had only recently taken that new name, having been simply called “The Armored Division” before it arrived in Egypt. The divisional commander’s wife took a stroll through the Cairo Zoo one day, and when she returned home she drew a sketch of a Jerboa which soon was adopted as the divisional flash. Even as the Armored Division took its first number, lucky 7, so it also came to be called the “Desert Rats.” It had only 65 tanks when Italy declared war, but Churchill had labored to send considerably more, and now General Creagh had 275 tanks, a mix of A-9 and A-13 cruiser tanks, and an equal number of Matildas, which were well armored tanks for their time, but not given to the lightning quickness O’Connor was now advocating. Where O’Connor saw his armor as a quick foil to slash and jab at his foe, the Matilda was more of a lumbering battle axe.

The A12 Matilda II could reach a speed of 16MPH. It was a tank designed for the role the British still had in mind for armor-an infantry support tank-a tank Wavell would understand implicitly. Most were gathered in the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, and realizing their limitations for the maneuver he had in mind, O’Connor would have them operate with the infantry as Wavell might expect. They were his heavy cavalry, to be thrown in at the appropriate time when the infantry had forced a key position to break the enemy line.

With a small 2lb main gun and a single 7.92Besa machinegun, the Matilda might pose a threat to enemy infantry if properly employed, and its 78mm armor was impervious to any anti-tank weapon then fielded by the Italians. It was not the dashing armored chariot O’Connor had in mind, but the tank would prove a shock to the Italians when they found they could do very little to harm the Matilda’s waltzing through their positions. The tank would soon be christened “The Desert Queen,” and the Matildas were not alone.

O’Connor also had about 135 cruiser tanks in the 7th and 8th Hussars. The A-9 and A-10 cruiser had the same 2 pounder gun as the Matilda but, with half the armor at 30mm, it was twice as fast. The A-13 cruiser could make 30mph, and this was the lightning fast jab that O’Connor would put to good use. The rest of O’Connor’s “armor” were older Mark VI light tanks, which were really nothing more than fast machine gun carriers with thin 14mm armor. Yet speed was the order of the day in the general’s mind just then, and so he would gallop ahead with his cruiser tanks and an ad hoc brigade of armored cars, lorried riflemen, and anti-tank guns. O’Connor would put his Western Desert Force to good use, and prove his methods on the field, even with equipment ill-suited for the role he envisioned.

The plan called for speed, surprise, bold flanking maneuvers and night movement so as to assure he would not be spotted by the Italian Air Force, and it was going produce something much more than even O’Connor had expected.

Chapter 8

The attack started when the Blenheims came in at 7:00 scattering loads of bombs along the Italian positions, a rude awakening that was made worse when the monitor HMS Terror opened fire on the coastal encampment with her two big 15-inch guns. The ship was basically a small 7200 ton floating gun turret, a spare that had been built for the battlecruiser HMS Furious before it was converted to an aircraft carrier.

It had been at Malta earlier, helping to fend off the Italian air attacks there with her anti-aircraft guns. Now it was cruising off the coast in the pre-dawn light, blasting away at the Italian positions and living up to its name in every respect. The shock of 15-inch shells tearing up the stony ground was tremendous, and a rude awakening that day for the Italians. Terror was joined by a few other smaller gunboats that were peppering known artillery and AT gun positions with smaller caliber fire, concentrating on the coastal towns ofMaktila andSidiBarani.

Further inland atNibeiwa camp, the Italians heard the skirl and drum of Scottish bagpipes, and the growl of tanks. The surprise was that the attack was not coming from the east as expected, but from the west, behind them! The British had come in through theEnba gap as planned, infiltrating at night behind the Italian encampments, and they were taking them from the rear. Stunned by the sudden attack, the Italians burst out of their field tents and leapt for the cover of nearby slit trenches just as the Matilda’s of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment came rumbling into their camp, along with infantry of the 11th Indian Brigade.