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 Meanwhile, the Australian Tank Corps was superseded following the formation of the Australian Armoured Corps in July 1941.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
Italians in the United Kingdom has suffered such a blow." On 19 July the Home Secretary, wrote a letter to Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, in which he made it clear that he realised mistakes had been made in selecting Italians for the Arandora Star. Lord Snell was charged with conducting a government inquiry into the tragedy. He recognised that the method of selecting "dangerous" Italians was not satisfactory and the result was that among those earmarked for deportation were a number of non-fascists and people whose sympathies lay with Britain. In the 1950s Italian immigration started again to some areas of Great Britain (such