page_title: Defence of Outpost Snipe
section_title: 28 October
hierarchical_section_title: Defence of Outpost Snipe / Battle / 28 October
caption_attribution_description: Second Battle of El Alamein: Trento Division under heavy attack by 1st South African Division and 4th Indian Division falls back. 21st Panzer Division and Littorio Armoured Division counterattack and stabilze Axis front: October 28th, 1942. 2nd New Zealand Division moves behind 9th Australian Division. October 28th, 1942. Australian 9th Division attempts to break through Axis lines west of Hill 28: 10am October 28th, 1942.
context_page_description: The Defence of Outpost Snipe in Egypt, took place in the Second Battle of El Alamein, part of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War. On the night of 26/27 October 1942, the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, with thirteen 6-pounder anti-tank guns and the 239th Battery, 76th Anti-Tank Regiment RA, with six more 6-pounders, was ordered to occupy a desert feature known as Snipe, a small depression in the landscape 1.5 mi south-west of Kidney Ridge that was suitable for an outpost. Once consolidated, it could be used as a jumping-off point for an advance by the 24th Armoured Brigade.
  From 26 to 27 October, the 2nd Rifle Brigade defeated numerous Axis armoured counter-attacks and withstood constant artillery-bombardments and machine-gun fire, while knocking out 52–57 Axis armoured vehicles, with intermittent support from the tanks and artillery of the 1st Armoured Division. The defence of Outpost Snipe managed to spoil the biggest Axis counter-attack against the positions captured by the Eighth Army, during Operation Lightfoot but the Battalion had 72 casualties.
context_section_description: After checking the 6-pounders to make sure they were incapable of firing, the last unwounded troops prepared for the relief but no sign of a relief party or the battalion transport appeared and at 10:30 p.m., the survivors of A and C companies withdrew with one 6-pounder, which was carried out on a damaged Chevrolet portée; as both sides were out rescuing wounded and the party was not fired on. British artillery opened fire soon after the retirement began and bombarded accurately the area around Outpost Snipe for the first time, which led to German tanks moving from their laagers straight towards the outpost, at which, the battalion HQ with the remaining men retired for 2.5 mi (4 km) on foot and under fire. A relief force of the 5th Royal Sussex from the fresh 133rd Lorried Infantry Brigade (Brigadier A. W. Lee) had set out when the brigade began to take over from the 7th Motor Brigade and the British bombardment had been fired as the 5th Royal Sussex advanced. As the 2nd Rifle Brigade had retired they had passed unseen by the relieving battalion, which dug in before dawn about 1,000 yd (914 m) south-east of Outpost Snipe.
caption: 28 October: Axis counter-attacks south of Outpost Snipe and Australian attacks to the north
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