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17th "Pavia" Infantry Division (view source)
Revision as of 13:37, November 11, 2016
, 13:37, November 11, 2016→Operation Crusader
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>
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>
On 15 December, the ''Pavia'', ''Brescia'' and ''Trento'' Divisions covering the German withdrawal from the Gazala Line, successfully resist the advance of the 2nd New Zealand Division and supporting Polish Brigade, allowing Italian and German armoured forces to join and deliver a strong counterattack that overruns the 1st Battalion, Royal East Kent Regiment (''The Buffs'').<ref>"The Poles and New Zealanders made good initial progress, taking several hundred Italian prisoners; but the Italians rallied well, and by noon it was clear to General Alfred Godwin-Austen that his two brigades lacked the weight to achieve a breakthrough on the right flank. It was the same story in the centre, where the Italians of ‘Trieste’ continued to repulse 5th Indian Brigade’s attack on Point 208. By mid-afternoon the III Corps attack had been fought to a halt all along the line." Crusader: Eighth Army’s Forgotten Victory, November 1941-January 1942, Richard Humble, p. 187, Leo Cooper, 1987</ref>
==References==
==References==