"Only a week": the 2/13th Battalion departure was only to be delayed by a week

The 2/13th Battalion was told that they would leave Tobruk on "the night of 19-20 November" 1941. The British fortress commander, General Scobie was the one who told the battalion of the new plan. Their departure was to be delayed by just a week. The Australian historian thought that the British were being grossly over-confident in their estimation of the chances of success. While during past defeats, the British had been out-numbered by the enemy forces, this time they expected to have a larger army than the enemy and would have better equipment. The Australian historian, though, thought that this time, they were excessively over-confident, much more so than they were  a year later at the Second El-Alamein.
The next piece of information was Churchill's letter to the men prior to the coming operation, where he mentioned the King's confidence that the men would all do their duty. Looking back, on the night of 26-27 September 1941, the Western Army Headquarters was re-designated as the 8th Army. The army commander was the victor of the East African campaign,m General Alan Cunningham, the Mediterranean Fleet commander's brother. At the same time, the Western Desert Force was renamed XIII Corps. The XIII Corps was primarily and infantry unit. The armor was put under the control of XXX Corps on 21 October. The army now had a headquarters and had two corps under its command.
General Cunningham had drafted the plan for Operation Crusader initially on 28 September 1941. The plan was worked and reworked as time progressed, but the basic plan lasted up until the start of the operation. Cunningham's plan was a good approximation of Auchinleck's original suggestion. His plan included an operation to pin the enemy's forces on the coast and then and to stage a demonstration that appeared to be an advance towards Benghazi. The main striking force would strike across the way south from  Fort Magdelana.
The northern attack to pin the enemy forces on the coast had the infantry tanks of the 1st Army Tank Brigade. They had an assortment of 145 tanks, including both Matildas and Valentines. The infantry component included the New Zealand Division and the 4th Indian Division. They were the divisions in the XIII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Godwin-Austen.
The mobile tank force Rommel's army in the south. They had some 500 fast tanks. They included three brigades with American M-3 Stuart tanks, British Crusader tanks, and some older British cruiser tanks, such as the Cruiser Mark IVa (A.13), Cruiser Mark II (A.10), and possibly a few surviving A.9, Cruiser Mk. I's.The American tanks were originally governed down to about 32 miles per hour, but when the governers were removed, they could reach 40 miles per hour. The American tanks only had a 37mm gun, while the British had the standard 40mm 2-pounder gun. The support tanks, often used as headquarters vehicles had a 3-inch howitzer, firing high-explosive shells. XXXth Corps ended up being commanded by Lieutenant-General Norrie. He had been the 1st Armoured Division commander. He replaced General Pope as the mobile corps commander. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History, as well as our general knowledge of the British forces in Operation Crusader.