The GGFF made their mark during Operation Crusader. 35 anti-tank rifles, six Solothurn S-18/100 anti-tank rifles and eight 81 mm mortars. ![]() The garrison also had ten 47/32 mm guns, 24 Breda Mod. The soldiers took position in the holes in the evening of 1 December, under torrential rain. One of the two M13/40s and some of the 元 tankettes, immobilized by mechanical breakdowns, were interred and used as defensive positions. These fortifications allowed Bir el Gubi to be defended from attackers coming from any direction. The Italian soldiers strengthened the existing fortifications, building machine gun and anti-tank gun posts, building barbed wire barriers and digging holes in the ground. A tank company of the I Battalion of the 32nd Tank Infantry Regiment of the Ariete with ten Fiat 元 tankettes and two M13/40 medium tanks was also sent in support. The Battalion Group "Giovani Fascisti" and some Bersaglieri units took position in Bir el Gubi. On 19 November the 132nd Armored Division "Ariete" repulsed in the Action at Bir el Gubi (November 1941) a British attack and on 23 November a great tank battle, Totensonntag ("Sunday of the Dead" in German), took place in the desert. ![]() ![]() On 18 November, north of Bir el Gubi, Commonwealth forces started a new offensive, Operation Crusader. The battle was part of Operation Crusader. Bir el Gubi was a tactical position whose fall would have allowed the Allies to outflank the German-Italian forces in Cyrenaica. It followed the Action at Bir el Gubi (November 1941) a failed Allied attempt to capture Bir el Gubi two weeks' previous. The Action at Bir el Gubi (December 1941) was fought near Bir el Gubi, Libya, between 3 and 7 December 1941, between Italian (later reinforced by German) and Commonwealth forces.
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