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
2/7th Armoured Regiment (Australia) Armoured Division in September. After this, the 2/7th Armoured Regiment remained in Western Australia and was reassigned to the 1st Armoured Brigade Group. Nevertheless, on 7 January 1944, the 2/7th was also disbanded, having never seen action. The following is a list of officers that commanded the 2/7th Armoured Regiment: 2/7th Armoured Regiment (Australia) The 2/7th Armoured Regiment was an armoured regiment of the Australian Army. Raised for service during World War II in October 1941, it was initially intended to serve in the Middle East, however due to the changing nature of the war and manpower shortages, the regiment