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
4th Armoured Division (France, 1964) 4th Armoured Division (France, 1964) The 4th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the French Army formed between 1964 and 1970. It should not be confused with the 4e Division cuirassée, a French armored division that saw service in the 1940 campaign. Initially the 4th Armoured Division had its headquarters at Verdun, and on 1 June 1968, the 3rd Engineer Regiment (3e régiment du genie) at Mézières came under the division's command. After the small-divisions reorganisation of 1977, in which three-brigade divisions were reduced to about five manoeuvre battalions each, its headquarters moved to Nancy (4 RCS). Also on