From 20 to 21 November 1941 and the fighting for Sidi Rezegh

General Gott, the 7th Armoured Division commander, was involved with the battle for Sidi Rezegh. He had been at Sidi Rezegh earlier in the day. After that, he had ordered the South Africans to send a brigade to Sidi Rezegh. They had dispatched the 5th South African Brigade. They were to be at Sidi Rezegh by 7am on 21 November 1941,, but they stopped at nightfall, we believe. They were still 17 miles away from Sidi Rezegh.
The South African division, although only one brigade was present, stayed at El Gubi with XXXth Corps' only medium regiment. The force at El  Gubi was to "mask" the Italian armored division, the Ariete. That seems to be an odd command to give a division, as masking was not explained.
General Gott arrived back at Sidi Rezegh in the evening of 20 November. He ordered the 7th Armoured Brigade and the Support Group to attack the enemy on the ridge above the airfield at Sidi Rezegh. They were supposed to open a path to the Trigh Capuzzo and Ed Duda. They would meet the Tobruk sortie force at Ed Duda. They attacked the morning of 21 November at 7:45am. The 70th Division group had started their sortie from Tobruk. The South African brigade had not arrived yet, as they were slowed by mud. Infantry from the Support Group captured the ridge. Tanks from the 6th RTR were able to push through, anticipating that they would be able to travel to Ed Duda. There was a problem, though. Rommel was present and sent four 88mm guns with the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit to stop the tanks. The 6th RTR "was shot to pieces". They had managed to save enough tanks to form a squadron from the remains of the battalion.
General Gott traveled to meet the South African brigade. He stopped them some ten miles from Sidi Rezegh. Gott stayed with the brigade for much of the day. For some reason, he did not tell the brigade commander about the plan to send his brigade to Ed Duda to meet the sortie group from Tobruk.
The successes of the first part of Operation Crusader were the capture of the ridge at Sidi Rezegh and the captured of posts Tiger and Jack by the Tobruk sortie forces. The situation took turns for the worse quite soon after those successes. At Gabr Saleh, the enemy tanks pulled back and headed for Sidi Rezegh. The 4th and 22nd Armoured Brigades chased the Germans,m who were thought to be fleeing. The British were able to catch the Germans and started a tank battle until the British started to run out of fuel. The German armor kept going, so that by 8am, they were getting close to Sidi Rezegh. The Germans attacked the Support Group on the ridge, who were desperately trying to hold the captured ground. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.