Tanks in the Australian Army forces during the World War II. Meanwhile, the Australian Tank Corps was superseded following the formation of the Australian Armoured Corps in July 1941. In October 1941 two independent light tank squadrons had been formed for service in Malaya; however, neither was deployed due to a lack of vehicles to equip them. In North Africa in 1941, Australian troops were part of the force which captured Tobruk on 22 January as part of Operation Compass, yielding over 25,000 prisoners along with 236 field and medium guns, 23 medium tanks and more than 200 other vehicles. During the capture of the
War in the North against Brunete in order to stop the Nationalist offensive in the north on July 6, but by July 25 the offensive had ended. The morale of the Republican troops in Cantabria was low and the Basque soldiers did not want to carry on the fight. On August 14, the Nationalists launched their offensive against Cantabria, with the 90,000 men (25,000 Italians) and 200 aircraft of the Army of the North. On August 17, the Italians occupied the "El Escudo" Pass and encircled 22 Republican battalions at Campoo (Cantabria). On August 24, the Basque troops surrendered to the Italians at Santoña