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
7th Division (Australia) the divisional headquarters disbanding in January–February, and the division's component units disbanding between December 1945 and March 1946. A total of 2,063 men from the division were killed during the war, while a further 4,356 were wounded. Approximately 40,000 men served with the division between 1940 and 1946. The 7th Division consisted of the following units: "Main divisional units" (with state of origin, where applicable) "Corps level units attached to the division" The following officers served as commanding officer of the 7th Division: 7th Division (Australia) The 7th Division was an infantry division of the Australian Army. It was formed