of XXX Corps failed to meet their objectives on 25 October, the 9th Division gained considerable momentum, attacking both frontally and executing a wide "left hook" from their original positions, in their sector, with one Axis outpost after another falling to them. Together with the 51st (Highland) Division, and the 2nd New Zealand Division, they had mauled the Italian Trento Division and the German 164th Division. By the following day the 9th Division had managed to further slice through the German 164th Division and trap the greater part of it against the sea. This caused the Axis to rush reinforcements to their sector. As events unfolded, it was on the 9th that Montgomery, the Eighth Army commander, pinned his hopes on a breakthrough. Before this breakthrough was attempted, however, the 9th Division was subjected to numerous counter-attacks by German forces and many of the division's units suffered so many casualties that they were described as "mere skeletons". By the night of 31 October/1 November Morshead decided to relieve his forward brigade, the 26th Brigade, with the relatively fresh 24th Brigade, however, the following day two German divisions attacked the brigade. On 2 November, Operation Supercharge—as the breakout was named—began and the final phase of the battle began. The British armoured formations suffered heavily in the initial stages, before on the second day the 51st Division managed to force a gap through the Axis lines, creating a gap of over through which the armour was redirected. The result of this was that the pressure was taken off the 9th Division as the focus of the fighting shifted to the south of Tel el Eisa. After this the 9th Division ceased offensive action, although they continued patrolling operations until 4 November when Rommel ordered a general withdrawal. The four months that the 9th Division had been involved in the fighting around El Alamein cost them 1,225 killed, 3,638 wounded and 946 captured, for a total of 5,809 casualties. South West Pacific In October 1942 the Australian government requested that the 9th Division be released from service in the Middle East and returned to Australia to be utilised against the Japanese in the Pacific. Although both the British prime minister, Winston Churchill and the American president Franklin Roosevelt advised against this, the Australian prime minister John Curtin insisted and by mid December the decision to bring the division back to Australia was confirmed.