10 October 1941 Penney received a promotion to the acting rank of major-general and, upon being sent to the Middle East, was made Signals Officer-in-Chief with Middle East Command (General Sir Claude Auchinleck) becoming the latter's chief signal officer. Auchinleck was preparing for an offensive in North Africa, which was then the only theatre of war in which British and Commonwealth troops were engaged in combat with the Axis powers. Penney's task was to improve the communication systems to allow the Eighth Army to function efficiently, which in the Western Desert was not always an easy task, with poor communications, among many other reasons, having been responsible for the many setbacks during the North African campaign thus far. Penney, as Signals Officer-in-Chief, was to obtain for the army sufficient wireless radio sets, with sufficient range to cover the long distances between the numerous units. Penney, whose rank of major-general was made temporary on 10 October 1942. On 18 February, Penney was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and, on 25 June, his rank of major-general was made permanent (with seniority backdating to 17 November 1941). Alexander's, now Penney's superior officer, influence later secured Penney's next major appointment, as GOC of the 1st Infantry Division, in mid-October 1943. Just over two years after Penney had left the division, he returned as its GOC. Italy On 4 December, Penney's division departed North Africa for Italy and arrived there three days later, originally to reinforce Montgomery's Eighth Army. However, it was soon transferred to Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark's American Fifth Army, coming under the command of Major General John P. Lucas's US VI Corps, in preparation for Operation Shingle. By December 1943, the Allied Armies in Italy (AAI), consisting of the American Fifth and British Eighth Armies, commanded by General Alexander, were bogged down in front of the Winter Line defences, 80 miles south of Rome. Operation Shingle, General Alexander envisioned, would land VI Corps in an amphibious operation at the port town of Anzio, behind the German line, which ran from Monte Cassino to the mouth of the River Garigliano, and draw off German defenders from the Winter Line to face the new threat at Anzio, enabling elements of Clark's Fifth Army to break through at Cassino, drive up through the Liri valley and link up with VI Corps at Anzio. The operation went ahead as