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17th "Pavia" Infantry Division (view source)
Revision as of 13:35, November 11, 2016
, 13:35, November 11, 2016no edit summary
On 5 December, the ''Pavia'' Division from positions at El Adem covers the German withdrawal from Tobruk, delaying the advance of the 1st Battalion from the ''Durham Light Infantry'' in chaotic night-fighting lasting over three hours.<ref>"The operation proceeded without opposition until the 1/Durham Light Infantry had advanced some 5,000 yards. Here the Pavia Division had established a rearguard position which was tenaciously defended but overcome after midnight by an attack made in conjunction with tanks of the 32nd Army Tank Brigade." Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Volume 3, Barton Maughan, p. 509, Australian War Memorial, 1966</ref>
On 5 December, the ''Pavia'' Division from positions at El Adem covers the German withdrawal from Tobruk, delaying the advance of the 1st Battalion from the ''Durham Light Infantry'' in chaotic night-fighting lasting over three hours.<ref>"The operation proceeded without opposition until the 1/Durham Light Infantry had advanced some 5,000 yards. Here the Pavia Division had established a rearguard position which was tenaciously defended but overcome after midnight by an attack made in conjunction with tanks of the 32nd Army Tank Brigade." Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Volume 3, Barton Maughan, p. 509, Australian War Memorial, 1966</ref>
On 14 December, the Maoris from the New Zealand 22 Battalion encountered stiff resistance from the ''Pavia'' Division that counterattacked twice, before withdrawing. The New Zealanders with the help of strong artillery fire capture 382 soldiers from the ''Pavia'' in the action, but lose 3 killed and 27 wounded in the process.<ref>"At 3 a.m. on 14 December the guns opened a 15-minute concentration and the Maoris closed in with bayonets fixed, meeting mortar, MG and anti-tank fire and using grenades freely to overcome it. In little more than an hour resistance ended and C and D Companies began to dig in just west of the foremost defences, while A Company extended the position on lower ground to the east-north-east. B Company, which had advanced farthest, struck trouble, however, from another enemy position on the escarpment to the west and was twice counter-attacked." The Relief of Tobruk, W. E. Murphy, p. 496, War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1961</ref>
==References==
==References==