7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) two days of fighting, Brigadier Jock Campbell, commanding the 7th Support Group, was awarded the Victoria Cross. However, the 21st Panzer, despite being considerably weaker in armour, proved superior in its combined arms tactics, pushing the 7th Armoured back with a further 50 tanks lost (mainly from the 22nd Armoured Brigade). On 27 June 1942, elements of the 7th Armoured Division, along with units of the 3rd The King's Own Hussars, suffered one of the worst friendly fire incidents when they were attacked by a group of Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Wellington bombers during a two-hour raid near Mersa
2/7th Armoured Regiment (Australia) Wales, at this time. The delay in equipping the units of the 1st Armoured Division meant that their deployment was set back. Initially it had been planned to deploy the 2/7th Armoured Regiment, along with the rest of the 1st Armoured Brigade, in December 1941, however, this was not possible. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and invasion Malaya meant that the decision was made not to send the 1st Armoured Division to the Middle East as the situation in the Pacific had the potential to directly threaten the Australian mainland. In June 1942 the regiment was re-equipped