the battalion's rear with a frontal assault resulting in the capture of 300 prisoners. Later on the night of 25 November, along with the 18th Battalion, he was tasked with the night-time capture of Belhamed, a hill adjacent to Sidi Rezegh. As the units moved to its positions, he made a navigational error which resulted in his headquarters company becoming separated from the other companies of the battalion. It took him until daylight for him to re-establish contact with the remainder of the battalion which, when he located it, was in its expected position having taken the hill with few losses. He was wounded by machine gun fire when he carelessly exposed himself while assessing the battalion's situation. Evacuated to a dressing station, he was captured by elements of the 15th Panzer Division three days later. Still on Belhamed, the 20th Battalion was destroyed in a counterattack, an action observed by a distressed Kippenberger through field glasses. The dressing station was now under the guard of Italians, the Germans having moved on. The Italians began to send the captive senior officers to prisoner of war camps in Italy, a fate Kippenberger wanted to avoid. On 4 December, he, with a party of 20 others, was able to discreetly abscond from the station by stealing a truck. Making his way back to Baggush, he ran into a group of armoured cars which forced the truck to a stop. To his relief, the armoured cars proved to be those of a South African unit. On reaching Baggush, he met up with Freyberg, who was extremely pleased to see him and promptly promoted Kippenberger to brigadier and command of the 5th Infantry Brigade on the spot; the brigade's previous commander, Brigadier James Hargest, had been captured during a German counteroffensive. While in Baggush, Kippenberger also convinced his superiors to send a unit back to the dressing station to rescue the remaining prisoners. For his work during the campaign, Kippenberger was mentioned in despatches. The 5th Brigade consisted of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Battalions. With the Maori Battalion frequently attached to his command, the brigade numbered 5,000 personnel. It was regarded as a substandard formation by the other brigades of the division, and Kippenberger set about rectifying this. While the rest of the 2nd Division moved to Syria, he and his brigade remained in Baggush, and worked on defensive fortifications for several months.