3rd Indian Motor Brigade

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 800 of the men taken prisoner rejoined soon afterwards. The Axis had released 600 prisoners from captivity after 48 hours, due to a water-shortage, who reached the Free French fighting the Battle of Bir Hakeim (26 May – 11 June) and another 200 men 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).

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.

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 9 mi (14 km) wide, with a rocky edge up to 800 ft (240 m) high. On the west, the ridge declines into flat open country and the fort lies about 2 mi (3.2 km) 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 1,200 yd (1,100 m) from east to west and 800 yd (730 m) 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.

And so the brigade group was ready to move and at the allotted time the signal code was hauled up above the Brigade Major's vehicle and the group moved off as one vehicle; the sight of a thousand vehicles of all types, moving in formation, across a fairly level plain was a sight that one could never forget. Down through the years before the war whilst training in the Militia I had worked out exercises and manoeuvres on sand tables and blackboards, but never did I imagine that such a huge force could be controlled as perfectly as was the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade and its attached troops on that morning.

— Major W. B. Nehl

The 2nd Royal Lancers were assigned the west face and the PAVO the east.

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.