Australian and British attacks had alerted Montgomery that Rommel had committed his reserve, the 90th Light Division, to the front and that its presence in the coastal sector suggested that Rommel was expecting the next major Eighth Army offensive there. Montgomery decided to attack further south on a front south of Point 29. The attack was to take place on the night of 31 October/1 November, as soon as he had completed the reorganisation of his front line to create reserves for the offensive (although in the event it was postponed by 24 hours). To keep Rommel's attention on the coastal sector, Montgomery ordered the renewal of the 9th Australian Division operation on the night of 30/31 October. D + 7–9: 30 October – 1 November The night of 30 October saw the third Australian attempt to reach the paved road and by the end of the night they were astride the road and the railway, making the position of the Axis troops in the salient precarious. A battlegroup from the 21st Panzer Division launched four attacks against Thompson's Post on 31 October, all being repulsed. Sergeant William Kibby (2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion) who, for his actions from 23 October until his death on the 31 October, including a lone attack on a machine-gun position at his own initiative, was awarded the Victoria Cross (posthumous). On 1 November, contact with 125 in the nose of the salient was restored; the supporting X Bersaglieri Battalion resisted several Australian attacks. On 1 November, the tankers Tripolino and Ostia were torpedoed and sunk by aircraft, north-west of Tobruk. The shortage forced Rommel to rely increasingly on fuel flown in from Crete on the orders of Albert Kesselring, (OB , Supreme Commander South), despite the restrictions imposed by the bombing of the airfields in Crete and Desert Air Force interceptions of the transport aircraft. Rommel began to plan a retirement to Fuka, some to the west, as he had only 90 tanks remaining, against 800 British tanks. Large amounts of fuel arrived at Benghazi after the German forces had started to retreat but little of it reached the front, a fact Kesselring tried to change by delivering it more closely to the fighting forces. Phase four: Operation Supercharge D + 10: 2 November This phase of the battle began at 01:00 on 2 November, with the objective of destroying enemy armour, forcing the enemy