Rommel’s 21st Panzer joined in the destruction, accounting for another twenty-three Crusaders and Matildas. The onslaught spilled over into the next month, when the British tried a second time to overwhelm Axis forces at Bir El Gobi. Beginning 2 December, an entire army corps struck at the rear of an oblivious Afrika Korps. Outnumbered three to one, volunteers in the Giovanni Fascisti regiment parried a death-blow blow dealt by the 11th Indian Brigade, foiling General Ritchie’s attempt to trap Rommel in Gabr Saleh after assaulting the Germans’ southern flank.

The furious desert battles raged for four days, during which the British 4th Armoured Brigade was so severely mauled its tattered remnants retreated twelve kilometres away to recover themselves. The 1st South African Division was similarly knocked out of the fighting. Badly thrashed, the 11th Indian Brigade withdrew minus 100 tanks lost to the 75mm guns of the Giovanni Fascisti. Italian covering action undoubtedly saved the Afrika Korps at Gabr Saleh. Although the British continued to pour material into the melee, their final attempt at surrounding Italo-German forces was too weak from loss of blood. The Trieste and Ariete Divisions fought their way through encirclement, destroying another 100 enemy vehicles in the process.

Attrition had depleted both Desert Army troops and RAF pilots, but Churchill ordered another major effort to “catch and destroy Rommel with his Italian lackeys”.⁷ Operation Crusader lumbered forward again on 18 December against the Ariete, which was under-supplied after prolonged fighting less than two weeks before. To permit the Division’s withdrawal, a Caribinieri parachute battalion stopped pursuing British forces at the Elut el Asel fork in the Cerenaic Djebel. The paratroopers allowed themselves to be surrounded, affording the Ariete enough time to complete removal to the rear. When it escaped the fighting, the Caribinieri shot their way out of encirclement in a bold attack along the Balbia Road, near Lamluda. An entire enemy division and a battalion had slipped through scorched British fingers.

Taking advantage of enemy consternation, the Afrika Korps and Corpo d’Armata di Manovra, an Italian Mobile Army Corps, combined to inflict serious casualties on the 22nd Armoured Brigade. Of its original 158 tanks, just thirty survived Operation Crusader. The Caribinieri, who made this Axis victory possible and fought through encirclement against impossible odds, eventually reached Italian lines. They left behind thirty-five dead paratroopers. Another 200 were missing. When word reached Mussolini of their achievement, he ordered the Battalion’s flag decorated with the Silver Medal of Military Valor.

Back in London, Churchill blew up in front of his commanders, telling them that the British Army was the laughing stock of the world, and asked bitterly if they did not have just one general who could win battles.⁸