AQQAQIR RIDGE 1/2 NOVEMBER 1942
"ITALIAN antitank guns fired on British tanks at a range of 20 yards and General Freyberg's 9th Armoured Brigade was reported to have lost 70 out of the 94 tanks it had started with." (Incredible Facts, Richard Manchester, Riverside World, 1994)
"Already at midnight on 2 November, the air bombardment suggested a new offensive was about to start and the headquarters of Panzer Army Africa issued its own order: all the positions were to be held no matter what, not an inch of terrain was to be surrendered without a hard fight ... one battalion of 90th Light Division in the north, along with another one of 15th Panzer Division in the south, were soon overrun and at 4.45am it was reported that only one Italian BERSAGLIERI INFANTRY BATTALION was still holding the line ... A little while later, the tanks of 9th Armoured Brigade arrived, immediately attacking the enemy positions along the Rahman track ... with its three battalions deployed as follows from north to south: 3rd Hussars, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and Warwickshire Yeomanry, supported by the anti-tank guns of 14th Sherwood Foresters. (El Alamein, Pier Paolo Battistelli, The History Press, 2011)
"Major Eveleigh's own tank was hit and set ablaze at point blank range by a troop of ITALIAN 47MM GUNS. He bailed out with his turret crew, until the armour plate became too hot to touch, desperately struggled to free the jammed hatches of his driver and co-driver, to no avail. Aware that the ITALIAN GUNNERS were shooting at his gunner and operator with small arms, he emptied his revolver at them. At this point Lieutenant Charles Dorman, one of his troop leaders, seeing what was happening, attacked the ITALIANS from a flank and wiped them out. The rest of the regiment had now come up and become heavily engaged in a series of personal close-quarter duels with the numerous gun positions ... During this phase of the action the regiment accounted for fifteen anti-tank guns, four field guns and five tanks, but by 0710 it had itself been reduced to seven tanks while only four of its officers remained alive and unwounded." (Iron Fist, Bryan Perrett, Hachette, 2012)
"Divisione 'Littorio', which had been mauled by the hastily retreating 1st Armoured Division ... was to be bolstered by two units of 88mm guns before tackling 1st Armoured again." (El Alamein, Bryn Hammond, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012)
"La mattina del 2 novembre, dopo il sacrificio di un’intera divisione corazzata, la Littorio, che nella notte si era frapposta insieme ai pezzi da 88 tedeschi per cercare di fermare la 9° inglese dipingendo una delle pagine più eroiche della Seconda Guerra Mondiale." ([ Ссылка ] El-Alamein)
Pari sorte toccò al XII; il 27 ottobre il battaglione contrattaccò, ripristinando la situazione sull'importante caposaldo di KIDNEY. Il 1° novembre ad est di TELL EL AQQAQIR, ridotto a 7 carri, continuo a contrattaccare; il 2 novembre il XII non esisteva piu. (El Alamein, Dino Campini, Soldiershop, 2013)
"But the anti-tank screen was almost destroyed, losing 35 guns, while the wounded Littorio tank commander reported that he had lost most of his tanks. The attack was checked and the continuing fight on the following day resulted in the loss for the 8th Army of a total of 200 tanks, but Rommel was at the end of his resources." (Rommel's North Africa Campaign, Jack Greene, Alessandro Massignani, Da Capo Press, 2007)
"Gli artiglieri della Littorio dopo nove giorni di strenua lotta difesero ancora stoicamente i pezzi e con il loro sacrificio scrissero una delle più belle pagine di gloria dell'arma." (Ferrea Mole Ferreo Cuore, Dino Campini, Soldiershop, 2015)
"Italian reinforcements also included 105mm guns and 90mm antiaircraft guns, which could perform as well as the German '88' in an anti-tank role" (El Alamein, Bryn Hammond, Bloomsbury, 2012)
"The ITALIAN GUNNERS proved especially effective as daylight broke and they opened fire from ranges as little as 20 yards. The consequences were predictable and destructive. In a matter of hours the 9th Armoured Brigade lost 70 of of it's compliment of 94 tanks." (Battlefield Documentary Alamein, Dave Flitton, 2001)
The new (Littorio) division had a smaller compliment of 6,500 officers and men, but it had additional firepower: twelve more 105mm artillery pieces, eight brand new 90mm AA guns - the Italian equivalent of the German 88mm and just as deadly in an anti-tank role, twenty-six more 20mm AA guns, and twenty-four new Semoventi (Mussolini's Elite Armoured Divisions, Ian Walker, Crowood, 2012)
"Some of the credit given to the “eighty-eights” as a deadly long-range tank-killer in North Africa actually goes to the superficially similar Italian cannone da 90/53. This 90mm antiaircraft gun was one of the better Italian weapons ... over 500 produced between 1941 and 1943 ..." (The Big Book of Gun Trivia, Gordon Rottman, Bloomsbury, 2013)
