70th Division and XIII Corps infantry and tanks were still effective from 22 November 1941

The events of 22 November 1941 left General Scobie with the impression that there was something wrong with the Crusader Operation. He decided to strengthen the position of the Tobruk Sortie force. They would go after nearby enemy outposts keep the pressure on the enemy.
In the afternoon, 32nd Army Tank Brigade along with infantry and the 1st RHA took outpost Lion. This lay to the right from outpost Tiger. General Scobie read a report that evening that the enemy had taken Sidi Rezegh. He also interpreted a message to mean that the New Zealand Division was moving to the "Tobruk front". On 23 November, the sortie force took Dalby Square. The enemy staged a counter-attack, but they British were able to hold onto Dalby Square. They captured some three hundred prisoners. The Tobruk force also captured the west part of Outpost Tugun.
The Tobruk sortie force had fired a lot of rounds of ammunition so far. General Scobie had asked to be resupplied with ammunition, but he received a reply that they could not send one to his force. That meant that the sortie force needed to conserve what ammunition it had. The Tobruk anti-aircraft guns did counter-battery firing..
At the start of the sortie from Tobruk, the Australian 2/13th Battalion was split into two parts. One part created a defensive position at the pass near Pilastrano. Two other companies were employed to continue to hold the Wadi Schel. They were involved with other tasks, such as grave digging at Tiger and guarding prisoners at the prisoner-of-war camp. Early on 23 November, they could see a wrecked ship on the coast. This was the wreck of the Maria Giovanni schooner, which had missed the harbor entrance and had run on the shore. The wreck was out of field gun range, so they tried to use anti-aircraft guns to destroy the wreck, but failed.
During the night on 24 November, Polish soldiers relieved the Australians at the Wadi Schel so that they were able rejoin the Australians near Pilastrano. That left the Australians with little to do for the time. That lasted for about two days.
General Scobie and his staff were studying message traffic. That seemed to show the enemy position becoming critical. The received orders to attack Ed Duda the next day with the New Zealand Division. They had been still short of ammunition, but then heard that they would receive some 600 tons from a ship that was due to arrive during the night on 26 November.
The situation early on 23 November was cause for General Cunningham to ask General Auchinleck to join him at the front. The Eighth Army staff had compiled British and enemy tank losses. The actual situation was even worse than they thought. During the first four days, the British ahd lost about 530 tanks. The enemy was thought to have lost only 100 tanks. The 7th Armoured Division had started with 500 cruiser tanks. After the four days, they had less than 90 runners. They thought that the enemy still had 250 tanks, of which 170 were German.
General Auchinleck ordered General Cunningham on 24 November to keep attacking, even fighting to the "last tank". This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.