country beyond, thus necessitating more infantry attacks. At this time, however, Kirkman was becoming seriously concerned about the situation regarding the artillery ammunition. At the current rate of fire, he believed, the ammunition would last no longer than ten days. He explained his views to Montgomery, who told Kirkman that the battle would last another week. Nearly forty years later, Kirkman recalled the event with Nigel Hamilton. "I said to him, 'I've been going into the ammunition situation and it's very difficult to find how much ammunition there is in the Middle East. But as far as I can find out we can go with this battle for ten days at the present rate − but we can't go on indefinitely.' And Monty replied: 'Oh, it's quite all right, absolutely all right, don't worry about ammunition. This battle will be over in a week's time. There'll be no problem.' We argued a bit. I said, 'Well it wouldn't be a bad thing if we cut 13 Corps down to 40 rounds per gun per day anyway.' And he said, 'All right, we'll do that.' The point is this: When I saw Monty he was relaxed, he was by himself, quite amiable, talkative; and − there's no question − full of confidence". In the next few days Montgomery launched a new assault, Operation Supercharge, which was accompanied by a massive barrage of some 360 guns, all from Leese's XXX Corps. The operation took two days later but succeeded, and the ammunition stocks held out. The pursuit of the retreating Axis forces now began, and Kirkman was critical of the speed with which the Eighth Army, in particular Lumsden's X Corps, pursued them. Reflecting later on the "lack of an effective pursuit" he then said: "But again, this is war. It is a terrible thing, but when you have got on well, had a victory, there's a tendency for everyone to sit down and do nothing. And we're particularly bad at this aspect of war − we were in the war anyway. But you can't blame it all on Monty. He didn't plan the pursuit well in my view, but who got through? Armoured cars! What a nonsense! Armoured cars are one of the most vulnerable...to think that the armoured cars had the guts, if you like, to break through as they did, and the tanks hadn't done it, is a terrible