The planned sortie from Tobruk during Operation Crusader in November 1941

For Operation Battleaxe, General Morshead and Brigadier Wooten, the 18th Australian Brigade commander, had planned a sortie that resembled what was planned for Crusader. The objective for the sortie was Ed Duda. General Cunningham spoke with General Scobie and Brigadier Martin at a meeting in mid-October 1941. General Scobie was still on his way to Tobruk at the time to take command. He promised the South African General Brink that he would provide a squadron of cruiser tanks when they moved to meet them in Ed Duda. General Scobie had no way of knowing that the cruiser tanks in Tobruk were in bad mechanical condition. What happened was that only eight of the cruiser tanks were runners as of the end of the first day of the sortie from Tobruk.
The Australian historian said of the sortie plan that "it worked". Some plan features were unfortunate. They were planning to send their tanks off along with artillery so far away that the Tobruk garrison would not be able to support them. Another unfortunate choice was to promise a corridor with vulnerable flanks that would be held. They would be forced to conduct operations to hold the flanks.
The planners assumed that they would be unable to surprise the enemy. A feature of the supporting operations that were proposed was that they would succeed in alerting the enemy at various points about the fortress perimeter. The sortie would first break through the enemy defensive line and occupy captured positions. That would be followed by combined arms of tanks and infantry to push out to Ed Duda and take that feature. The tanks would lead the column in the attack.
The details were that the initial objective, a location named Tiger, was 2-1/2 miles out from Tobruk. The mechanized force was such that they would use eight bridges to cross the anti-tank ditch at night. The force would deploy in "No-Man's Land". Before they could attack Tiger, they had to overcome outposts "Butch, Jill, Tugun, Lion, Cub, and Jack". They had to at least "neutralize" "Tugun, Lion, Cub and Jack". If they could accomplish all that, they would still have to drive another five miles to reach Ed Dudaa.
The first move would be taken by the Polish Brigade at about 3am. They would mount raids with artillery bombardment. The Australians of the 2/13th Battalion would join the operation with a patrol. They would act as if they were going to attack an Italian defensive position "Twin Pimples". Two Polish battalions would move out to the left of the Australians. The 23rd Brigade would create a diversion near the road block at El Adem. This was all starting early on 21 November 1941. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.