Fighting at Kidney Ridge, circa 27 October 1942

The left side of the German force touched the left side of the 2/24th Battalion. The enemy staged a determined attack that included infantry and tanks. They were beaten back with machine gun fire, mortars, and artillery fire. The right side of the German attack was mounted against the 2/17th Battalion. Again, supporting fire called in were sufficient to stop the attack as far back as 400 yards from the Australian line. At the same time, the enemy sent tanks against the Kidney Ridge position.

The Kidney Ridge name was rather misleading, because the feature was actually a depression with raised edges. The feature was defended by a considerable enemy force. The feature was defended strongly enough to stop the 1st Armoured Division from advancing. A strong British force was attempting to take the feature. Forces from the 1st Armoured Division and the 51st Highland Division were involved. An odd circumstance was created by someone misreading a map of the area. On the 27th, a group of 19-6pdr anti-tank guns was manned by the 2/Rifle Brigade. The guns were in a very exposed position the gun position was named "Snipe". They had knocked out a considerable number of enemy tanks. The last attack came "straight at them" and they broke that attack as well. They had knocked out some sixty or seventy tanks and self-propelled guns. The historian says that as many as 32 were total losses, not fit to be recovered.

Apparently on the night of 26 to 27 October, the 2/Rifle Brigade pulled back. A battalion of the 133rd Lorried Infantry Brigade could not find their position, so they gave up and withdrew. Another wayward battalion from the 133rd Brigade got lost and dug in the wrong place. They ended up being overrun by the enemy.

The 2/Rifle Brigade showed that if the infantry were to push forward and set up anti-tank guns, they would be able to hold off enemy tank attacks. In the case of the 1st Armoured Division, they kept making the same mistake: sending out single battalions with "open flanks" when they needed to make an advance on a "broad front". Because of this sort of mistake, the enemy was able to hold Kidney Ridge past the end of October. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.