![]() German and Italian prisoners captured at Ruweisat Ridge, July 1942. Finally that afternoon, just as the position was about to collapse, tanks of the British 22nd Armoured Brigade, backed by six-pounder anti-tank guns able to work effectively at longer range, engaged Rommel’s panzers and brought them to a halt. As the panzers drove along the ridge, spraying gun emplacements with machine guns and crushing redoubts with their defenders inside, the British and Indian gunners and infantry engaged them at close range and refused to back down despite heavy casualties on both sides. All that remained to hold the ridge’s eastern end was a ragtag formation of various units called “ Robcol.” Told that there was no retreat and they had to fight it out on the spot, the anti-tank gunners responded heroically. Meanwhile, his depleted panzers pushed hard to the east along Ruweisat Ridge, hoping to complete its capture and punch a hole in the British defenses that could never be closed. On July 2, Rommel’s artillery brought the Hotbox under heavy artillery fire, pounding the South Africans there with shrapnel and shards of rock from the stony ground.
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