Operation Braganza
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Operation Braganza was launched on the night of 29 September 1942 by
Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...
Brian Horrocks, commanding British XIII Corps. It was intended as a preliminary to Operation Lightfoot, part of the
Second Battle of El Alamein The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa ...
. The objective was to capture an area of ground near Deir el Munassib in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, to be used for extra artillery deployment. This would involve the 131st (Queen's) Infantry Brigade from the 44th (Home Counties) Division, supporting armour from the 4th Armoured Brigade, nine field regiments and one medium battery of artillery.


Battle

The artillery barrage commenced at 05.25. While the 1/6th Battalion,
Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...
 — on the northern side of the battle — and the 1/7th Battalion — on the eastern side — encountered very little opposition, in the south the 1/5th was badly handled when they ran into positions held by the paratroopers of the 185th Infantry Division "Folgore". The brigade made little ground, taking 328 casualties in the process.The Italian paratroopers "bore the brunt of the attack. They fought well and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.", Afrika Korps War Diary, 30 September 1942 There were then attempts to relieve the survivors and renew the attack. In the northern part of the battle, these were successful, when the 132nd (Kent) Infantry Brigade took over, it was found that, despite little fighting, there had been a great many casualties from heatstroke in the 131st Brigade. When, on the following day, the relief operations and attempts to renew the attack in the south broke down, Lieutenant-General Horrocks called off the operation. As a result of the losses from the operation, some of the formations were unfit for the battle ( Operation Lightfoot) and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the British Eighth Army commander, had to change his plans of keeping divisions together. During the remaining period of training, this often led to bewildering interchange of units, which also created considerably extra difficulties for the command structure.


Notes and references


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Braganza, Operation 1942 in Egypt Braganza Battles of World War II involving Italy Conflicts in 1942 Western Desert campaign Military operations of World War II involving Germany September 1942