WWII: British Army raid on Italian fort in Egypt
The Attack on Nibeiwa took place on 9 December 1940 near Nibeiwa, Egypt, when the Italian fortified camp held by the Maletti Group, the armoured force of the 10th Army, was overrun by British and Indian troops. The attack was the opening engagement of Operation Compass, a British raid which, if successful, would be followed up to try to expel the Italians from Egypt. Italy had declared war on France and Britain on 10 June and in the Italian invasion of Egypt () from 9 to 16 September 1940, the Italian 10th Army had reached the port of Sidi Barrani and dug in to await the completion of the , an extension of the , being built from the frontier. The Maletti Group garrisoned a camp at Nibeiwa, south of the port of Sidi Barrani.
The British had fought a delaying action during the Italian advance with the 7th Support Group of the 7th Armoured Division and kept their main force at the railhead of Mersa Matruh about east of Sidi Barrani. The British probed the Italian defences continually and then planned a five-day raid on Italian fortified camps, which had been built in an arc from the coast at Maktila to Sofafi in the south-west on the inland escarpment. The British intended to advance into the Nibeiwa–Rabia gap and attack Nibeiwa from the west. If the attack succeeded, the British would move on to attack the camps at Tummar West and Tummar East. The tanks of the 7th Armoured Division would form a defensive screen to the west, to protect the flank of the 4th Indian Infantry Division as it attacked the camps and be ready to intercept an Italian counter-attack.
The British and Indian infantry rehearsed an attack with the infantry tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in late November and another rehearsal was announced for early December, which was actually the attack. On the night of 9/10 December the attack began with diversions on the east side as the main force closed up from the west. The real attack took the Italians by surprise, destroyed the 28 tanks before their crews could react and then broke into the camp. The Italian and Libyan garrison resisted the attack with great determination but were systematically overrun by a combination of tanks, artillery firing from point-blank range and infantry. The Italian and Libyan troops suffered 4,157 casualties for a British loss of 56 men killed and 27 tanks disabled or broken down. The success at Nibeiwa began the collapse of the Italian position in Egypt.
Background.
Italian invasion of Egypt.
The Italian invasion of Egypt by the Italian 10th Army began against the Western Desert Force on 13 September 1940, after several days of operations on the Italian side of the border to push back British troops. The original goal of the offensive had been an advance by the 10th Army from Italian Libya along the Egyptian coast to the Suez Canal. After numerous delays, the aim of the offensive was reduced to the capture of the port of Sidi Barrani, an advance of about . Two divisions of the 10th Army advanced and met screening forces of the 7th Support Group (7th Armoured Division) which fell back slowly from Sollum. On 16 September, the 10th Army halted and took up defensive positions around Sidi Barrani, to build fortified camps while the was extended by the . Once the road was built and supplies had been accumulated, an advance on Mersa Matruh, about further east was to begin. Camps were built from Maktila with the 1st Libyan Division, east of Sidi Barrani, south through Tummars (east and west, 2nd Libyan Division), to Nibeiwa (Maletti Group) thence to four camps at Sofafi to the south-west, on the escarpment above the coastal strip. Blackshirt divisions held Sidi Barrani and Sollum; a metropolitan division garrisoned Buq Buq. Italian engineers worked on a new road from Fort Capuzzo through Sollum to Buq Buq, close to Sidi Barrani and a water pipe from Bardia. In December the 10th Army in Egypt had about 80,000 men, 250 guns and 120 tanks.
Western Desert Force.
The British Middle East Command (General Archibald Wavell) had in Egypt and Palestine about 36,000 British, Commonwealth and Free French soldiers, 120 guns, 275 tanks and 142 aircraft, in two squadrons of Hurricanes, one of Gloster Gladiators, three of Bristol Blenheims, three of Vickers Wellingtons and one of Bristol Bombays, about 46 fighters and 116 bombers. The Western Desert Force (WDF, Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor) comprised the 4th Indian Infantry Division (Major-General Noel Beresford-Peirse) and the 7th Armoured Division (Major-General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh). The British had some fast Cruiser Mk I, Cruiser Mk II and Cruiser Mk III tanks with 2-pounder guns, which were superior to Italian M11/39 tanks. The British also had a battalion Matilda II infantry tanks that, while slow, carried the 2-pounder and armour that was impervious to Italian anti-tank guns and field guns.
Maletti Group.
The I Medium Tank Battalion (Major Victor Ceva) and the II Medium Tank Battalion (Major Eugenio Campanile) and their M11/39 tanks of the 32nd Tank Infantry Regiment in Italy had landed in Libya on 8 July 1940 and transferred to the command of the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment. The two battalions had an establishment of 600 men, 72 tanks, 56 vehicles, 37 motorcycles and 76 trailers each. The medium tanks reinforced the 324 L3/35 tankettes already in Libya. The Maletti Group/ (General Pietro Maletti) was formed at Derna the same day, with seven Libyan motorised infantry battalions, a company of M11/39 tanks, a company of L3/33 tankettes, motorised artillery and supply units as the main motorised unit of the 10th Army and the first combined arms unit in North Africa.
Prelude.
Nibeiwa.
Nibeiwa was about south of Sidi Barrani; the camp was a double stone walled rectangle about , with shelters every behind an anti-tank trench and a minefield, which had a gap to the north-west to allow easier access for supply trucks. The 10th Army began to prepare an advance to Mersa Matruh for 16 December. Only the IX Light Tank Battalion with L3/33 tankettes attached to the 2nd Libyan Division "Pescatori", the II Medium Tank Battalion with M11/39s, with the Maletti Group at Nibeiwa camp and the LXIII and XX Light Tank battalions, with the XXI Corps HQ, were still in Egypt. The five fortified camps from the coast to the escarpment were well defended, but too far apart for overlapping fields of fire, and the defenders were reliant on ground and air patrols to link the camps and watch the British. Italian air reconnaissance spotted British vehicle movements in the area, but Maletti was apparently not informed. On 8 December, Maletti alerted the nearby 2nd Libyan Division "Pescatori" that unusual low-level flying by the RAF was probably intended disguise the movement of armoured units. At 6:30 a.m. on 9 December, Maletti contacted the commanders of the 1st Libyan Division and 2nd Libyan Division, reporting British preparatory movements.
British plan.
Training Exercise No.1 was held from 25 to 26 November near Matruh, on a model marked to resemble the Italian camps at Nibeiwa and the Tummars, and the troops were told that another rehearsal would be run in early December. The exercise was useful in providing experience in night moves under moonlight and attack tactics against a defensive position in the desert. "A Method of Attack on an entrenched Camp in the Desert" was distributed to units ready for Training Exercise No.2.
The 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division were reinforced with the British 16th Infantry Brigade, the 7th RTR and the Matruh Garrison Force of a Coldstream Guards battalion and a battery of field artillery; the 7th Indian Brigade was to act as a reserve and protect the lines of communication. Guarded by the Support Group, the rest of 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division were to drive between Nibeiwa and the Sofafi camps and then attack Nibeiwa from the west with the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade (Colonel Reginald Savory) and 47 Matilda II tanks of the 7th RTR. The cruiser tanks of the 7th Armoured Division were to prevent a counter-attack from Sofafi and cover the left flank of the 4th Indian Division. Once Nibewa had been captured, the attackers would move on to the Tummars. Each division was to have a field supply depot about west of Matruh, which were elaborately camouflaged and filled sufficiently for five days' operations and two days' supply of water. If the attack succeeded, the 7th Armoured Division tanks were to drive north to cut off the Italian line of retreat from Sidi Barrani while the Indians captured the other camps near the port. Maktila was to be cut off by the Matruh Garrison Force, and the tanks were to drive for Buq Buq to cut off the retreat of the garrison to Sollum.
On the night of 6/7 December, the 4th Indian Division left camp for Training Exercise No.2 in a cold wind that raised dust and concealed the lorries of the 4th and 6th New Zealand Reserve Mechanical Transport companies as they drove spread out over the desert, in air formation (no lorry to be within of another). After driving for the force rendezvoused at Bir Kenayis, about south of Matruh and dug slit trenches. The troops rested on 7 December, unseen by Italian air reconnaissance, and were told that the attack was the real one that evening. On 8 December, the advance continued into a bright, cold windless day at about at the front and in bursts at the back, with everyone expecting to be attacked by Italian aircraft that did not appear. By late afternoon, the Indians were south-east of Nibeiwa, west of their jumping-off point. At dusk two battalions of the 11th Indian Brigade and the 7th RTR moved off and drove in moonlight to a position south-west of Nibeiwa; before sunrise the units assembled at a jumping-off point north-west of the camp. The third battalion drove about short of the east side of the camp, which was on a flat plateau with a shallow valley on that side.
Battle.
British aircraft bombed the camps and flew overhead all night, to disguise the sound of the ground force vehicles and to keep Italian aircraft grounded. At 3:00 a.m., after the Indians had advanced on foot to the perimeter, they came upon listening posts and commenced firing, at which the Italian garrison sent up flares and returned fire. When the garrison ceased firing, the Indians shifted position and fired again, Under cover of the noise on the east side of Nibeiwa, the British tanks and lorries drove round the west side of the camp, and at 6:00 a.m. the Indians on the east side retired. A bombardment by British artillery began from the east, to mislead the Italians. At 7:15 a.m. the artillery of the 4th Indian Division fired on Nibewa from the south-east, around 7:00 a.m. and at 7:30 a.m. the tanks began the attack with the 31st Field Battery RA and flanked by the Bren Carrier platoons of the Indian infantry. The Italians had concentrated their 28 M11/39 tanks beyond the perimeter wall, where the tank crews were caught while warming engines.
The Italian tank crews had no time to react before their tanks were knocked out. The British tanks broke down the walls and drove into the camp, where the Italians had just breakfasted; Maletti advanced with a machine-gun and was killed by a gunshot wound. At 7:45 a.m. the British and Indian infantry followed up on board lorries, which stopped away for the men to disembark and charge into the camp. The Italian and Libyan artillerymen stood by their guns but found that even field artillery shells fired at range were ineffective against the armour of the Matilda tanks. The Italian and Libyan infantry fought on and isolated parties stalked British tanks with hand grenades but the British methodically occupied the camp, tanks artillery and infantry co-operating to reduce isolated pockets of resistance. By 10:40 a.m. the last Italian resistance was overcome and large amounts of supplies and water were discovered intact.
Aftermath.
Analysis.
Australian war correspondent Alan Moorehead visited Nibeiwa after the battle. To reach it, he had to move around destroyed lorries and Bren Carriers that had run onto mines,