The Eighth Army planned to engage and destroy the tanks of the Afrika Korps with the tanks of XXX Corps (Lieutenant-General Willoughby Norrie) in the 7th Armoured Division (Major-General William Gott), while the 1st South African Division (Major-General George Brink) covered their left flank. On the right flank, XIII Corps (Lieutenant-General Alfred Reade Godwin-Austen), supported by the 4th Armoured Brigade Group (Brigadier Alexander Gatehouse), would make a clockwise flanking advance west of Sidi Omar with the 2nd New Zealand Division (Major-General Bernard Freyberg), while the 4th Indian Division contained the Axis frontier posts. The New Zealanders were to hold a position threatening the rear of the line of Axis defensive strong points, east from Sidi Omar to the coast at Halfaya.