General Cunningham's plan for Operation Crusader

General Cunningham's plan for Operation Crusader, intended to launch in November 1941, followed the usual British system for the desert. They dispersed their forces, rather than concentrating them. The Australian historian mentions that the command structure provided to General Cunningham supposed that the tanks and infantry would be separated. The army headquarters controlled the XXX Corps, the main tank organization, and the XIII Corps, the main infantry organization. The XXX Corps with the fast tanks were in the south, while the XIII Corps with two infantry divisions was in the north, near the Mediterranean coast.
The actual story is somewhat different. The southern force had the 7th Armoured Division with two armored brigades. They did have an infantry division, the 1st South African Division with two brigades and the third brigade being the 22nd Guards Brigade. They were augmented by extra medium artillery and anti-tank gun regiments. The role of what was nominally the center group was actually the army tank brigade whose role was to support the northern group, which was the XIII Corps, which had the New Zealand Division and the 4th Indian Division.

General Cunningham's idea was that if the two German armored divisions were concentrated, they would have a superiority in tanks over the 7th Armoured Division. The answer had to be that the British would have the third armored brigade with infantry tanks located within a shorter distance to the XXX Corps, so they could close with them and concentrate against the two German armored divisions. General  Cunningham said, as the Australian historian mentions, that if the Germans used their two armored divisions separately, the British could still concentrate against one of them.Some critics had said that Cunningham had said that if the Germans split their armored divisions, the British would split their tank force in two.
General Cunningham's plan in final form was that the three British armored brigades would be together near Gabr Saleh. Gabr Saleh was located near the intersection of the track from Bardia and the Trigh el Abd. The reason for this location is that the brigades were concentrated, but still within supporting distance to the XIII Corps in the north. The Australian historian pointed out that Gabr Saleh was behind the enemy's fortified line between Salum in the north and Sidi Omar to the south. They were centrally located so that they could move out in a number of different directions, including towards Tobruk. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.