22 and 23 November 1941 near Sidi Rezegh

22 November 1941 was a bad day for the British. Fighting near Sidi Rezegh, the British armor was defeated. The German 21st Armored Division moved into a position at Belhamed. They were engaged by the 7th Armoured Brigade and the artillery from the 7th Support Group. The 4th and 22nd Armoured Brigades fought with the 15th Armored Division rearguard. By mid-morning, General Scobie was ordered to move the sortie force to Ed Duda and "shoot up the enemy tanks on the Trigh Capuzzo". The 7th Armoured Division was not in a position to support the attack at Ed Duda, but there was nothing that indicated that such an attack would be the wrong thing to do.
About this time, the 4th Armoured Brigade was ordered to the Trigh 175, which lay on the north escarpment. The 5th South African Brigade was sent to the Trigh 178. Eventually, the 22nd Armoured Brigade was also sent to the Trigh 178 area.
By midday, General Scobie was informed that the situation had improved so that he did not need to attack. The situation near Sidi Rezegh seemed to be compatible with that assessment. The 5th South African Brigade was ordered to clear enemy forces from the from the south escarpment by the Trigh 178. Rommel overrode the British plans by ordering the 21st Armored Division to attack and recapture the airfield at Sidi Rezegh. The division was split into tanks and infantry, with the tanks to attack from the west and the infantry would attack from the north. They had the support of the army artillery group that was located near Belhamed.
The German infantry attack hit the 7th Support Group and pushed it off the escarpment above the airfield. The German tank attack hit the remains of the 7th Armoured Brigade. The 22nd Armoured Brigade launched a counter-attack. British tanks fired mainly at German tanks. The Germans used 88mm and 50mm anti-tank guns to shoot the British tanks to pieces. The 4th Armoured Brigade came up after the initial battle. By the time night had fallend, the 7th Armoured Brigade had only ten tanks left. The 22nd Armoured Brigade still had 24 tanks, about half a battalion. One German tank regiment overran the 4th Armoured Brigade headquarters and captured the entire headquarters except for the brigade commander. The Germans also captured 35 tanks and some guns.
This day saw the XIII Corpss in operation for the first time in the battle. General Freyberg had rodered the 6th New Zealaad Brigade to the Trigh Capuzzo to reinforce the British near Sidi Rezegh. General Scobie, the Tobruk fortress commander and 70th Division commander realized that something was wrong. His reaction to that was to strengthen his forces hold on the corridor out of Tobruk.
General Freyberg realized that he wanted the whole New Zealand Division near Sidi Rezegh, not just one brigade. They did leave some units behind to hold what they had captured, but the main division force would move to Sidi Rezegh. General Godwin-Austen agreed with the move.
On 23 November 1941, "Totensonntag" (Sunday of the Dead), The Germans had some 160 tanks, infantry battalions and assault engineers to attack the forces at Sidi Rezegh. British armor there was only 34 tanks, the remains of the 7th and 22nd Armoured Brigades. The 5th South African Brigade was also present. The Germans started the attack with about 170 tanks and ended the day with about 100 tanks. The British forces were decimated. The armored units had lost most of their remaining tanks. The 5th South African brigade was overrun and dispersed. By the next day, the 7th Armoured Division was reduced to ten running tanks. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.