Wednesday, August 15, 2018

A surprise attack that worked at Ed Duda

The situation was rather ironic. The 7th Armoured Division, designed to be able to successfully fight the German Africa Corps lay in a leaguer at night, while the 32nd Army Tank Brigade, which had been tested repeatedly during the Crusader battle, was being asked again to fight the German Africa Corps, this time at Ed Duda.
The tank battle at Ed Duda lasted about three hours while the infantry was engaged for about fifteen minutes. Eight Matilda tanks drove up to the escarpment at Ed Duda. They came from the lower ground below. The German tanks stood out against a backlit view. There were tracers from machine gun fire and shots were fired from German 50mm guns and British 2pdr tank guns. There were also German 20mm tank guns fired from light tanks that added to the fireworks. Many shots ricocheted from the Matilda tank hulls. There were many more German tanks, perhaps three-to-one in numbers versus the British infantry tanks. The observing British infantry could see Matildas withdrawing and then returning to fight. The Germans seemed to be winning, but the German tanks withdrew, leaving the British tanks in possession of Ed Duda.
The Australian infantry were going to wait to attack, but ended up being sent forward at 1:30am. The German tanks were thought to have withdrawn before this time. What had actually happened was that by the British attacking without artillery support, they achieved complete surprise. Colonel Burrows, though, ordered his men to call out "Australians coming" as they attacked. The British tanks were also making as much noise as possible, revving their engines as they moved. They were also firing on the move, just to create more confusion. Sadly, the British tanks mistakenly fired on the Australian infantry. The Germans thought that they were facing British infantry, as they called "Englander kommen".
An account written after the battle gave better information about the situation. The Australian infantry attacked with two companies from B Company on the left and C Company on the right. The men from C Company had to recognize who was in front of them. They were apparently German infantry. Once they got close, the shouted and charged with bayonets fixed. The enemy morale collapsed  Their infantry either dropped to the ground or else held their hands up in surrender. They could hear Germans running ahead of them, calling "Englander kommen". The Austtslisnd stopped after they comvered five hundred yards. The Australians took small groups of Germans prisoner.
They could hear German motor transport moving in the distance. They were not close enough to capture any except for a motor cycle that was stopped by Thompson sub-machine gun fire. They captured the rider.
The Australian infantry leaders were very experienced at patroling and fighitng at night. The company commanders maintained control of their units. They only encountered German resistance twoards the edges. The Australians were so accomplished at this sort of activity that they stayed on top. When one group of Germans opened fire, an Australian sergeant led a charge and that stopped the enemy fighting. They encountered two Australian stretcher-bearers who were German prisoners and freed them. They almost had bayoneted them by mistake. On the other side, an Australian firing a hand-held Bren gun forced the surrender of 25 German infantry. The attackers took 167 enemy prisoners. The Australians had two  men killed and five wounded. The men needed to be able to dig in before morning, but there was no equipment. They were fortunate enough that there was not an immediate counter-attack. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.

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