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
Guards Armoured Division casualties and were struggling to find replacements. As a result, the attack was changed to one largely of armoured divisions, as lost tanks would be easier to replace. The Guards Armoured Division joined with the 7th and 11th Armoured Divisions for this attack. The aim was to strike south out of the Orne bridgehead on 18 July. The Guards Armoured Division was to advance south-east to capture Vimont and Argences. Prior to this attack the German defences were heavily bombed be the Royal Air Force. Unfortunately this was less effective than hoped against the dug-in defenders, both in the south