The night of 28 to 29 November 1941 near Ed Duda, Sidi Rezegh, and Tobruk

The convoy to transport the 2/13th Battalion had arrived. They then moved on carrying the Australians through the perimeter defenses. This was somewhat emotional affair for the Australians who had been trapped in Tobruk since early in 1941. They stopped at the Tiger outpost (which had been renamed as Sneezy). The 32nd Army Tank Brigade had a command center located at Tiger. The Australians learned at Tiger that they were to be involved with an attack by Brigadier Willison's armored brigade in the morning. They were supposed to attack Sidi Rezegh along with the armored brigade and a New Zealand battalion. They would receive formal orders about the operation when the 2/13th Battalion arrived at Ed Duda. The plan was mentioned in the 70th Division operations report. Apparently, the goal was to occupy a position on a spur at Sidi Rezegh that lies to the east. They would be operating with the 32nd Army Tank Brigade as well as the New Zealand Battalion.
The convoy grew in size while sitting at Tiger. They now had a supply column carrying supplies for the New Zealand Division and an augmented escort force. They did not need to wait long before they drove off to Ed Duda, which was relatively nearby. They had reached Ed Duda not long after midnight. The men climbed down off their trucks and were shown to their assigned spots on the eastern slopes of Ed Duda. This was a cold November night. The air was so cold that many men were not able to sleep. The passage from Tobruk to Ed Duda was very visible. You could see long lines of vehicles that were part of British and New Zealand convoys. They had driven in from the outposts in the desert and had turned onto the bypass road and then headed for the Tobruk corridor.
Colonel Burrows, of the 2/13th Battalion, was summoned to a meeting at Brigadier Willison's headquarters. The topic was to plan the details of the attack on Sidi Rezegh. They quickly realized that the 19th New Zealand Battalion commander and at least hald of the battalion were not there for the meeting and would not participate in the attack. The revised plan was that the Australians would attack and then take the ground that they would occupy. Colonel Burrows pointed out that he would need time to look over the situation in daylight before trying to attack. The guns from the 1st RHA would also need to be moved up to where they could be fired to support the 2/13th Battalion. That all meant that the attack needed to be postponed until 11am. The orders noted that the enemy forces were on the southwest slope down from Sidi Rezegh. The 2/13th Battalion would be under the operational command of the 4th RTR, which would provide tank support. The New Zealand forces would take over the rest of Sidi Rezegh. They desired that the Australian battalion would take the highest ground, designated by three grid squares. The men who had guided the Australians to their night positions at Ed Duda warned them to watch for gunfire early in the day. The veteran Australians didn't take the warning seriously, but this was different from what they were used to seeing. The German heavy artillery ws involved.
A New Zealand truck convoy stopped at the Ed Duda pass, right before dawn. The trucks were following good dispersal tactics, and they started to move again. German heavy guns opened fire on them. The bursting shells caused a high column of dense, black smoke. The trucks were now moving at high speed towards Tobruk. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.