of concentrated counter-battery (CB) fire to neutralise as many as possible of the enemy guns. The guns fell silent for 5 minutes before zero (22.00) then the full weight of artillery was brought down on the enemy's forwards positions as the Allied infantry began their advance. Afterwards the fire support began to vary with each attacking division's needs, the whole programme lasting about five and a half hours. One of 9th Australian Division's attacking brigades reached the final objective ('Oxalic') by dawn after some stiff fighting, the other was held up about short. Having broken into the enemy positions, the division began 'crumbling' operations the following night. It carried out another set-piece attack on 25/26 October, with plentiful artillery ammunition, and took Point 29. An Axis counter-attack on Point 29 the following day was broken up by the artillery supporting 9th Australian and by air attacks. The Australians continued attacking over following nights, with a third set-piece on 30/31 October. Eighth army had not yet achieved its hoped-for breakthrough, and a new phase of the attack, 'Operation Supercharge', was launched on 2 November. Next day the Australians found that the enemy in front was beginning to retreat, and Eighth Army began its pursuit. Tunisia Hammerforce was broken up on 3 November and 8th Armoured Division was never reconstituted: 146th (P&C) Fd Rgt officially left it on 6 November. On 10 December the regiment joined 7th Armoured Division during a pause in the pursuit. Eighth Army entered Tripoli on 23 January 1943 and pushed on towards Tunisia. The Axis forces counter-attacked at the Battle of Medenine on 6 March, but 7th Armoured Division was in a well-prepared position with plenty of 25-pdrs and ample ammunition. The attack was quickly broken up. 7th Armoured then took part in the set-piece Battles of the Mareth Line (16–23 March) and Wadi Akarit (6–7 April), after which it pursued the enemy up the coast to the Enfidaville position. The division was then switched to First Army for the final push to capture Tunis (Operations Vulcan and Strike 22 April–5 May). Italy After the end of the Tunisian campaign, 7th Armoured Division re-equipped and trained for the forthcoming Italian campaign (it was not required for Sicily). The Allied landing at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) was launched on 9 September 1943 and the division began landing on 15 September. It completed its concentration on 30 September, the leading