New Zealand 2 Pounder 'Portee's', November 1941.
A New Zealand 2 Pounder AT gun mounted to a light truck belonging to L Troop, 33rd Battery, 7th New Zealand Anti-Tank Regiment in Libya, November 1941.
The 33rd Battery of the 7th New Zealand Anti-Tank Regiment's had 4 vehicle mounted 'Portee' two-pounder AT guns which were placed round the brigade perimeter in their routine, and outside them the infantry manned a series of listening posts. In relays, one gunner watched at the firing position of each anti-tank gun while his crew-mates slept beside the portée. Each gun carrier carried rations for five days, consisting of biscuits, bully beef, tins of meat and vegetable stew, jam or marmalade, cheese, tea, sugar, and canned milk. In charge of each of the 4 mounted guns was Sergeants T. E. Williamson, P. Robertson, T. E. Unverricht, and T. H. Croft, of L1, L2, L3, and L4 respectively, with Lieutenant Pepper as Commander Officer of the unit.
Desert combat experience saw vehicle mounted guns as having advantages over regular static guns for rapid movement as well as firing over cover due to the higher mount, with the disadvantage of lacking dug in defensive positions, so they were often employed for firing a few rounds from hull down cover with the vehicle protected and only the gun barrel exposed while facing backwards before driving to a new defensive position in a shoot and scoot fashion. In the pre-dawn light on the 23rd of November, 1941, the guns set out at 0330 along with Commonwealth forces from the 24th Battalion, who were involved in an armoured skirmish with Africa Korps, while the Portee guns were now under the command of the 26th Batt.
Because of their much greater speed than their escorts, Valentine Tanks, the Portee's reached Wadi esc Sciomar and engaged fleeing German forces who had destroyed a Commonwealth convoy and was searching it any vehicles able to be captured and used by the Germans themselves among the mass of wrecked vehicles and trucks. The Portee guns drove the Germans off after firing 50 rounds at extreme range before the rest of the allies could arrive and medical aid given to the British convoy survivors. After this small action in Wadi esc Sciomar the New Zealanders were employed as part of a much larger engagement in operations to assist South African forces near Sidi Rezegh and the guns were used as part of an artillery quick reaction force, due to their very fast speed, at 4PM. By 4-30 the gun carriers had arrived to support the South Africans. The South African position was enveloped in swirls of dust and overhung by smoke, shot through in many places by the flames of burning vehicles, and at first it was impossible to make out individual tanks or trucks.
Gnr A. Graham on left and Sgt T. E. Williamson on right
After the engagement started, L1 gun was immediately knocked out as a German tank fired a 50MM AP shell through the gunshield, penetrating though the left foot and ankle of the gun-layer, Gunner Andy Graham and embedding in the carrier itself. (He survived, and later kept this shot, and when Graham went back to New Zealand it was his most cherished souvenir.) L2, L3 and L4 continued to engage the incoming armour from extreme range, over 1800 yards, continuing to fire at the luckily lightly armoured Panzer 2's, early model Panzer 3's and possibly Italian M.13s before the strength of the attack pushed them back, with L3 firing five rounds, with two confirmed hits, before backing up but not before taking a hit from another 50MM round from the flank, missing the gunner and loader but heavily wounding the driver, Gunner F. D. Nicholson, before continuing on and penetrating the engine, putting L3 out of action.
Sergeant Unverricht, commander of L3, attempted to get medical aid for his driver and now-injured gunner as well, whose leg was crushed trying to extract Nickelson from the wreck. L2 and L4 gun, to prevent the same fate, moved continuously during the engagement, firing AP as fast as they could load it, not even using sights but firing over the gunshields, with some tanks requiring two, three, and even four good shots to connect before it was killed.
After a half hour of frantic fighting, the defensive positions held against the German armour and infantry with trucks pushed forwards before being driven off themselves, but not before setting up mortar positions that shelled the defenders. By this point in the several days of smaller engagements plus this one both remaining guns had fired all 192 rounds and were re-stocked with ammo from the two disabled gun carriers while under mortar and long range MG fire.
The whole engagement had been reported to the 26th Battalion’s parent formation, the 6th New Zealand Infantry Brigade, who ordered the defenders to hold position until nightfall, then pull back. A final infantry assault was launched by the Germans around 6PM as the darkness set in which combined with thick smoke from the destroyed vehicles meaning battlefield visibility was very poor and as a result the German infantry were able to advance into close Bren and rifle fire before being driven back by 26 Batt's B Company infantry with a bayonet charge, during which Captain A. W. Wesney was killed.
It was decided by Lieutenant Pepper that L3 should be disabled further in place before the retreat, so Sergeant Unverricht and Bombardier ‘Cy’ Smith took the breech block with its firing mechanism from the gun, along with as many tins of tongue, sausages, and fruit as they could carry, before their position was raked with machinegun fire, with Smith diving prone among tins of sausages and when a lull enabled him to shift position he found that a German bullet had pierced one of the tins, missing his head by inches.
The men of L Troop, 33rd Battery, 7th New Zealand Anti-Tank Regiment.
The retreat was a success, and Brigadier Barrowclough wrote: ‘It will be appreciated that this small force had been hotly attacked by an enemy column which had already proved itself strong enough to defeat and overthrow the whole of the 5th South African Brigade Group. That the 26th Battalion and its supporting artillery and anti-tank guns were able to maintain their positions and come out of the action with surprisingly few casualties was an eloquent tribute to the high standard of training and fortitude of all ranks. After the action there was no question that the infantry had the highest possible regard for the gunners. Nor were the gunners less generous in their praise of the way in which the infantry first stood its ground and then fought the rearguard action back to the main body of the Brigade group.’
Lieutenant Pepper estimated that his gun Portee's had accounted for 24 tanks and a larger number of light vehicles, cargo trucks and grouped infantry targets. It was reported by the British that the German attack against the South Africans and the 26th Battalion cost the enemy 52 tanks. With that as a total figure, and taking into account that the two L Troop guns fired nearly 700 rounds between them in about three hours’ fighting, the figure of 24 certainties is at least possible, even allowing for the long range at which many of the shots were fired. On the debit side, one L Troop gunner was killed and three were wounded, and two 2 pounder guns and one portée in it's entirety lost. The afternoon’s fighting in this area cost the Eighth Army almost the whole of the 5th South African Brigade, as well as some tanks of the 22nd Armoured Brigade.
Against that there were the indefinite but certainly considerable German infantry casualties besides the losses in tanks and transport.
Good fortune attended L Troop to the end of the short but bitterly-fought campaign. Both the battery’s other two-pounder troops, J and K, were overrun with the 24th and 26th Battalions above the mosque at Sidi Rezegh on 30 November, with heavy casualties and complete loss of equipment. With the survivors of the 25th Battalion, L Troop was able to withdraw next day, and made its way back to Baggush with what remained of the 4th and 6th New Zealand Infantry Brigades. (1)
1- E. H. Smith, GUNS AGAINST TANKS : L TROOP, 33RD BATTERY, 7TH NEW ZEALAND ANTI-TANK REGIMENT IN LIBYA, 23 NOVEMBER 1941, Victoria University of Wellington, War Collection.