From the evening of 2 November 1942 at El Alamein

The 2nd Armoured Brigade had arrived late, too late to help the 9th Armooured Brigade. Their orders seemed to require them to attack on the same path as before. Instead, General Briggs and Brigadier Fisher decided to get into position to protect against and enemy attack "between the bridgehead and the Rahman track". Events proved them to have taken the right action. They were not yet across the enemy supply lines, but they were "close enough". The enemy did in fact attack late in the morning. They continued the fight until "nightfall" and believed that they had knocked out 66 "enemy tanks". They in fact did better than that, and had gotten 77 German and 40 Italian tanks. They had not "broken open the enemy front" yet.
Early on 2 November, Montgomery had ordered that an "infantry reserve" of four brigades be formed. They would use infantry to widen the "corridor". In the evening, the 51st Highland Division launched two attacks to the south. At the "Snipe" area, they took 160 prisoners from the Trieste Division.
General Lumsden decided to use the 7th Motor Brigade to break the enemy's gun line. They would create a gap for the 1st Armoured Division to move forward. On the morning of 3 November, then the 7th Armoured Division would be able to "pass through". The 7th Motor Brigade attack did not succeed. At daylight, a South African armored car unit tried to break through, but were unsuccessful. The 8th Armoured Brigade attacked to the southwest. They ended up fighting with the Ariete Division. They were eventually stopped by 88mm guns. By the end of 3 November, the 1st Armoured Division had lost more tanks. The enemy seemed to be in bad shape, but the British were almost out of energy ("at the end of their tether"). This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.