On the night of 26/27 October 1942, the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade (part of the 7th Motor Brigade), with thirteen 6-pounder anti-tank guns and the 239th Battery, 76th Anti-Tank Regiment RA, with six more 6-pounders, was ordered to occupy a desert feature known as Snipe, a small depression in the landscape 1 miles south-west of Kidney Ridge that was suitable for an outpost.