The 3rd Indian Motor Brigade was formed in 1940 by the Indian Army during World War II. In 1941, the brigade was surrounded at Mechili by Axis forces during Operation Sonnenblume and suffered many casualties breaking out of the encirclement. One cavalry regiment took part in the Siege of Tobruk and then the brigade was reconstituted in Egypt. In August, the brigade, under Brigadier A. A. E. Filose, was re-equipped at Mena in Egypt and in September moved to north-east Syria.
In May 1942, during the Battle of Gazala the brigade held a defensive box at Point 171 near Bir Hakeim and was again overrun by units of the Afrika Korps and Italian forces. On 28 May, the remnants of the brigade were sent back to Buq Buq to reform and about the men taken prisoner rejoined soon afterwards. The Axis had released from captivity after due to a water-shortage, who reached the Free French fighting the Battle of Bir Hakeim and another were liberated by a British column.
In July the remaining units of the brigade were dispersed and allotted to the defence of the Nile Delta. In August the brigade was reformed, less the 2nd Field Regiment RA. The brigade then moved to Sahneh in Iran via Baghdad, under the command of the 31st Indian Armoured Division. In late November, it moved to Shaibah near Basra. The cavalry regiments of the brigade returned to India in January 1943 and were replaced by the 2nd Battalion, 6th Gurkha Rifles, 2nd Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles and the 2nd Battalion, 10th Gurkha Rifles, the brigade being renamed the 43rd Indian Infantry Brigade (Lorried).
Formation The 2nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse), together with the 11th Prince Albert Victor's Own Cavalry (Frontier Force) (PAVO) and 18th King Edward's Own Cavalry (KEO) formed Sialkot Area and renamed the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade (Brigadier E. W. D. Vaughan, late OC 2nd Royal Lancers) from July 1940, under the command of the 1st Indian Armoured Division from August 1940. The three cavalry regiments mechanised slowly during 1940 on the Motor Battalion establishment, being mounted in Fordson trucks. The brigade was mobilised for active service on 7 January 1941 and sailed from Bombay on 23 January, arriving at Suez on 6 February. By April, the brigade was tactically mobile but had no artillery, no 2-pounder anti-tank guns, only half its establishment in radios, and was armed mainly with rifles. From there the brigade entrained and travelled to El Qassassin and then moved by lorry to El Tahag camp for training. The brigade moved to Mersa Matruh on 8 March and had two months' desert warfare training, then moved to El Adem from 27 to 28 March.
Western Desert
Action of Mechili
Cyrenaica Command (Cyrcom, Lieutenant-General Philip Neame) ordered the brigade to move to Martuba, ready to cover Derna and Barce or head south to Mechili, the only source of water for troops advancing on the desert tracks south of the Jebel Akhdar. The brigade (less the KEO guarding the airfield at El Adem), was then ordered south to Mechili, to block an Axis advance from Msus and rendezvous with the 2nd Armoured Division units retreating eastwards, which would provide the field and anti-tank guns needed by the Indian brigade. A stores depot for both units was being set up at Mechili. Mechili was a stone fort in a depression wide, with a rocky edge up to high. On the west, the ridge declines into flat open country and the fort lies about from the northern edge. In 1941 there was an airstrip to the south and the fort had been entrenched by the Italians as an all-round defensive position, forming a box from east to west and from north to south (over the winter, drifting sand had silted up the trenches). The 2/3rd Australian Anti-Tank Regiment and a wireless link to Cyrcom were attached and the brigade moved from El Adem via El Timmi to Mechili by the afternoon of 4 April.
The 2nd Royal Lancers were assigned the west face and the PAVO the east.
5 April
The next day, Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry, commander of the 2nd Armoured Division, sent a message to Mechili for M Battery, 3rd RHA (Major R. A. Eden) to meet his headquarters for anti-tank protection while moving to Mechili. The authenticity of the message was questioned and Vaughan asked that the message be repeated, mentioning Eden's nickname for identification but received no reply. That morning, Vaughan and Munro went out to reconnoitre, outside the perimeter, they were fired on by troops on high ground, who were quickly dispersed. The day was spent improving the defences and in the afternoon a Storch flew over and a 25-pounder field gun of the 104th RHA, arrived, to become the only artillery at the fort. In the evening patrols reported dust in the direction of Tengeder and the brigade field squadron returned from there and reported a brush with an Axis party. During the night there were reports of much activity outside the perimeter.
6 April
Near dawn, several Very lights were fired from the direction of the airstrip, two aircraft landed and a troop of the 2nd Lancers went to investigate. The aircraft took off and the Lancers noticed an Axis column approaching from the south. (The aircraft carried a party that had been laying mines near Mechili; they landed away and met Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel, who ordered all available forces to advance, cut the Mechili–Derna road and surround Mechili.) Other patrols returned with prisoners and just after two field guns began to bombard the fort. A third gun opened fire from the northeast but was driven off by a patrol of the PAVO. At infantry mounted in two lorries charged the eastern sector held by the PAVO, along the road towards an Australian anti-tank gun, which stopped the trucks. The troops jumped out, ran for cover and an Australian party went forward and captured a German officer, twenty Italian soldiers, and a gun.
A squadron of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) arrived to refuel and Vaughan arranged that the LRDG should operate outside the perimeter. Mitford, the LRDG commander, split his force in two, and Mitford's section captured the Italian gunner officer in command of the two guns shelling the fort, which ceased fire. Confirmation of the orders to M Battery were received and since there was no sign of Axis troops to the west, the battery set off, escorted by a troop of Lancers and the 25-pounder. The brigade reported the attacks and the response to Cyrcom, which ordered the 2nd Armoured Division to retreat to Mechili; near noon the division moved east towards Mechili. Soon after, the Support Group and the armoured brigade turned north towards Maraua and Derna, after receiving a wireless report ordering a change of direction to Maraura. The divisional headquarters did not receive the message, continued eastwards and O'Connor ordered the 3rd Indian Brigade to send out a petrol convoy to meet the division.
At about Cyrcom heard from Mechili, that the force surrounding them was increasing and that an attack was expected the next day. Mechili was not completely surrounded and parties operated outside the perimeter, PAVO patrols bringing in several prisoners during the day, when the road was closed to the east but still open to the west. A patrol from the squadron at Gadd el Ahmar came in for supplies and found the way blocked when it tried to return; the petrol convoy departed with a troop of the 2nd Lancers, on the route along which the 2nd Armoured Division was expected. M Battery encountered Gambier-Parry the 2nd Armoured Division commander, with the advanced HQ and the last cruiser tank, which reached Mechili about In the evening, a German officer appeared with a flag of truce and demand that the garrison surrender and was seen off by the defenders. The main Axis forces had been unable to reach Mechili in sufficient strength because some units had run out of fuel, others had mechanical difficulties caused by the excessive heat, others had received no rations for four days and many others had got lost or were out of touch.
Group Fabris reached Mechili in the evening, took position to the east and Rommel planned to attack at Cyrcom decided on a general retirement to Gazala and ordered the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade to withdraw to El Adem at once but the message was only addressed to the 2nd Armoured Division and the 3rd Armoured Brigade and apparently was not received by the brigade. Gambier-Parry took command of the garrison force and Vaughan briefed him that the Axis was not strong enough to attack the garrison and that demands for surrender were a bluff to get at the water. Gambier-Parry had brought no other fighting troops and told the conference that the rest of the division should reach Mechili by the following night, less most of the tanks. The garrison saw an Axis force leaguer to the east of Mechili that afternoon and Munro planned a dawn raid with the 10th Battery and an Indian cavalry troop. In the desert, Rommel postponed the attack until the main force arrived.
7 April
The raid failed and one of the two guns was lost; at German artillery opened fire from a ridge to the north-east, a party went out in a lorry carrying a Vickers gun to capture the guns but was unable to get close under cover. The bombardment hit vehicles but caused few casualties and a second demand for surrender was made and refused. (Nothing was heard from Cyrcom until the early afternoon when a message was received that the 104th RHA had been sent day before and that the garrison should withdraw if it risked encirclement.) Early in the morning, a British aircraft dropped a message that Mechili was surrounded and that Axis columns were advancing from the south and east. Axis activity was reported to the south and at a small infantry attack was repulsed by the PAVO and several prisoners were taken. In the late afternoon, an Italian attack in lorries was made towards the positions of the 2nd Lancers and the Australian 11th Battery. An anti-tank gun hit a lorry, more prisoners were taken and another gun was captured. The two anti-tank guns were made a section and Munro, the battery commander, took one to the perimeter to test its sights and fired at a group of Axis troops moving into position. The troops turned out to be gunners and bombarded the camp for half an hour, during which A Squadron KEO came in from Gadd-al-Ahmar to the south-east, having skirmished with armoured cars en route.
The main Axis attack did not occur as Rommel was still waiting for Group Olbrich from Msus and towards evening he flew off in a Storch to find them. Rommel found the group about short of Mechili and decided to attack without it. A mixed unit of the Ariete Division, had reached Mechili during the day, having been attacked by Bristol Blenheim bombers of 45 Squadron, 55 Squadron and the last Hawker Hurricane fighters of 3 Squadron RAAF. In the evening, Rommel sent another surrender demand, offering "the full honours of war" but the reply was the same. When the emissary returned to his lines, about began to bombard the garrison. Machine-gun fire was received for more than an hour with no effect and just before dusk, armoured cars forced a standing patrol of the 2nd Lancers in the south-western sector near the landing ground to withdraw; later the attackers retired and the position was reoccupied. Group Streich, most of the 5th Light Division advanced force, which had been ordered to Tobruk, arrived as dark fell and Rommel ordered the attack to begin at dawn next day.
Break-out plan