7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) of Major-General Richard O'Connor, was massively outnumbered. However, the Italian Army consisted largely of leg infantry; its artillery dated back to the First World War, it had no armoured cars and a few antitank weapons, which were effective only against light and cruiser tanks. As such, it proved to be no match for the British. The Western Desert Force captured 130,000 Italians as prisoners of war (POWs) between December 1940 and February 1941 in piecemeal battles. During the Italian retreat in January 1941, Major-General O'Connor ordered the Desert Rats to travel south of the Jebel Akhdar and cut off the
6th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) Armoured Brigade ("from 9 November 1940") 6th Support Group ("from 1 November 1940, disbanded 1 June 1942") 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade ("from 9 June 1942, left 16 February 1943") 1st Guards Brigade ("from 24 March 1943, left 29 May 1944") 61st Infantry Brigade ("from 29 May 1944") Divisional Troops The following brigades were, at various points in time, attached to the 6th Armoured Division. 6th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) The 6th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, created in September 1940 during the Second World War. The unit was initially supplied with Matilda and Valentine tanks,