December 7th The secret was out. junior officers and men of 4th Indian Division learnt that the rehearsals were over and that the curtain was about to rise on the Main conflict in North Africa, the Division would be on the move at dawn 8th december.
The night of the 7th was nitterly cold. at dawn the men drew their chilled and cramped limbs from slit trenches and from under vehicles. The wind had fallen and the sky was clear. now came the crucial hours of approach. 60 miles of bare desert seperated 4th Indian Division from it's deployment area. No reconnaisance plane could miss the cruising pattern of 5000 vehicles. the RAF had sent up every available machine to pin down enemy observation flights. yet it seemed incredible that through out the day no specks appeared in the west, to bank sharpely and to streak for home with the momentous tidings.
Hour by hour the formations crawled foreward, avoiding used tracks in order to keep dust down. In the afternoon the sky clouded over and at 15.30 hours the division concentrated without incident 15 miles to the south-west of Nibeiwa.
here 5 and 16 brigades settled down to wait. the remainder of the division paused only until dusk fell, when guides from 7th armoured division arrived to lead the infantry of 11 brigade, the four artillery regiments and the tanks of 7 Royal Tank Regiment to their battle positions.
4/7 Rajputs were detacjed to make a feint attack against the eastern perimiter of Nibeiwa. The remainder of the brigade group swing into the north-west through the Bir Enba gap, in a detour which carried the striking force about 5 miles to the south of their objective. here the Artillery regiments were dropped, to move up and align in their gun positions. The infantry and Tanks continued their march until 3 hours before dawn of the 9th december when they halted within 4 miles of the north-west entrance of the camp. Quietly ,Rapidly the columns redeployed in battle order.
Taken from the divisional history book. Steve
(let me know if you would like me to continue the details of the battle as it happend next update will be 9th december).
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It was proper we should wear eagles upon our shoulders, for only birds could have reached the heights we did or visited the lands we did.
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