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
10th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) 3 June 1943, left 11 April 1944") 23rd Armoured Brigade ("from 1 June 1944, left 14 June 1944") 7th Motor Brigade ("from 12 September 1942, left 23 September 1942") 133rd Lorried Infantry Brigade ("from 29 September 1942, left 25 November 1942") 201st Guards Motor Brigade ("from 9 January 1943, left 1 February 1943") Divisional Troops Royal Armoured Corps Royal Engineers Royal Corps of Signals 10th Armoured Divisional Signals Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals Royal Artillery 10th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) The 10th Armoured Division was an armoured formation of division-size of the British Army, raised during World War II and