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
1st Armoured Division (Australia) in Europe during the early stages of World War II. The Australian War Cabinet approved the formation of an armoured division in July 1940, and 1st Armoured Division was established on 1 July 1941, under the command of Major General John Northcott. The Australian Armoured Corps was established at the same time, with the corps being formally gazetted on 9 July 1941. The Division was established with two armoured brigades, 1st and 2nd, each of three armoured regiments. These were supported by various corps troops including an armoured car regiment, a motor regiment (converted from a light horse formation), engineers,