2 November and gained most of their objectives to schedule and with moderate losses. One battalion from the 90th Light Division along with another battalion from the 15th Panzer Division were soon overrun and at 04:45 it was reported that only one Bersaglieri infantry battalioon was still manning the defensive line. On the right of the main attack 28th (Maori) battalion captured positions to protect the right flank of the newly formed salient and 133rd Lorried Infantry did the same on the left. New Zealand engineers cleared five lines through the mines allowing the Royal Dragoons armoured car regiment to slip out into the open and spend the day raiding the Axis communications. The 9th Armoured Brigade had started its approach march at 20:00 on 1 November from El Alamein railway station with around 130 tanks and arrived at its start line with only 94 runners (operational tanks). The brigade was to have started its attack towards Tel el Aqqaqir at 05:45 behind a barrage; the attack was postponed for 30 minutes while the brigade regrouped on Currie's orders. At 06:15, 30 minutes before dawn, the three regiments of the brigade advanced towards the gun line. Brigadier Currie had tried to get the brigade out of doing this job, stating that he believed the brigade would be attacking on too wide a front with no reserves and that they would most likely have 50 percent losses. The reply came from Freyberg that Montgomery The German and Italian anti-tank guns (mostly Pak38 and Italian 47 mm guns, along with 24 of the formidable 88 mm flak guns) opened fire upon the charging tanks silhouetted by the rising sun. German tanks, which had penetrated between the Warwickshire Yeomanry and Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, also caused many casualties. British tanks attacking the Folgore sector were fought off with petrol bombs and mortar fire as well as with the obsolete Italian 47 mm guns. The Axis gun screen started to inflict a steady amount of damage upon the advancing tanks but was unable to stop them; over the course of the next 30 minutes, around 35 guns were destroyed and several hundred prisoners taken. The 9th Armoured Brigade had started the attack with 94 tanks and was reduced to only 14 runners, of the 400 crews involved in the attack, 230 had been killed, wounded or captured. After the Brigade's action, Brigadier Gentry of 6th