The Poacher’s Vengeance: How a Crusader Gunner, a ‘Tin Can’ Tank, and a Two-Pounder Gun Saved Egypt

I. The Brink of Collapse: Rommel’s Final Drive

The summer of 1942 was the bleakest moment for the Allies in the North African Campaign. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” had pushed the British Eighth Army nearly a thousand miles across the desert after his devastating victory at Gazala. The remnants of the British forces were clinging desperately to a defensive line anchored between the Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara Depression. At the heart of this fragile line lay a seemingly unremarkable rise of ground: Ruweisat Ridge.

At 06:15 a.m. on July 3rd, 1942, the expected assault began. Corporal Alfie Nicholls, a 24-year-old gunner in a Crusader tank of the 9th Lancers regiment, 2nd Armoured Brigade, watched the dust cloud of German Panzers rising eight miles to the west. Rommel had unleashed the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions—the iron fist of the Africa Corps—with approximately 60 tanks. Their objective was clear: shatter the British defense at Ruweisat, reach the open desert beyond, and then swing north to cut the entire Eighth Army’s supply line. Beyond that, only 70 miles away, lay Alexandria and the strategically vital Suez Canal.

If Rommel took the ridge, the Allies would lose Egypt, potentially changing the course of the war.

Nicholls, a corporal with 11 months in North Africa, had yet to score a confirmed tank kill. Yet, on this desperate morning, he and his comrades were the only thing standing between the Africa Corps and victory.

II. The Inequality of Steel: The “Tin Can” vs. The Panzer

The tactical imbalance was catastrophic. The British tanks were tragically inferior to their German counterparts in almost every measureable category:

A. The Crusader Tank: The “Tin Can”

The Crusader was a cruiser tank, designed for speed and maneuverability, not for a slugging match with German armor.

Armor: Maximum thickness was 49mm on the turret face. German 75mm high-velocity rounds sliced through it like paper. Crews bitterly called it the “Tin Can.”

Firepower: Its main armament was the two-pounder gun (40mm), a weapon already obsolete by 1942. At ranges beyond 300 yards, the two-pounder was nearly useless against the frontal armor of a Panzer III and utterly ineffective against the formidable, long-barreled Panzer IV (Special).

B. The Panzer Advantage

The German Panzer divisions were spearheaded by the deadly combination of:

Panzer III: Equipped with the powerful 50mm high-velocity gun, capable of penetrating the Crusader at battle range.

Panzer IV (Ausf. F2/G): Armed with the devastating long-barreled 75mm gun, which could knock out a Crusader from well over 1,000 yards away, long before the British tank could even get close enough to fire back.

By early July, the 2nd Armoured Brigade was a shadow of its former self, having lost 87 tanks in the long retreat from Gazala. The standing order for the surviving Crusader crews was brutally simple: Engage at close range. They had to hold their fire until the Panzers closed to “knife-fighting distance” (under 300 yards) before their antiquated two-pounder could hope to penetrate. This meant sitting still and watching friends die while 88mm and 75mm rounds screamed past.

III. The Poacher’s Eye: A New Kind of Tank Gunnery

Alfie Nicholls’ background was key to his survival. He had grown up in the English countryside, known locally as a poacher: an exceptional shot with a rifle, patient, and calm under pressure.

Initially, those skills translated poorly to the chaos of tank gunnery. But during the brutal retreat, Nicholls stopped thinking like a rifleman engaging a man and started thinking like a hunter engaging a large, mobile beast.

He mastered the art of observation and anticipation:

Reading Terrain: He learned to anticipate where a large tank would have to slow down or briefly pause due to rough ground.

The Two-Second Rule: He never fired until the target was stationary, even for a split second, maximizing the small, precious chance of a hit.

The Precision Kill: Crucially, he did not aim at the tank’s armor, which his gun couldn’t penetrate. He aimed for the vulnerable “soft spots”—the turret ring (where the armor plates joined and was thinnest), the hull side, or the driver’s vision port.

His commander’s order came through the intercom: “Hold fire.” 400 yards. Too far. 350. 300. A Panzer IV turned its turret toward Nicholls’s position. He could see the menacing muzzle of the 75mm gun swinging toward him.

The Panzer IV fired. The shell missed by six feet, close enough that Nicholls felt the concussion through the Crusader’s thin armor. His commander’s voice crackled: “Fire when ready.”

Nicholls centered the crosshairs on the Panzer IV’s turret ring. He took a breath, waited for the German tank to settle for just two seconds, and squeezed the trigger.

Kill 1 (Approx. 07:05): The two-pounder shell struck the turret ring exactly where Nicholls aimed, punching through the thin armor joint. The Panzer IV shuddered and stopped, smoke pouring from the commander’s hatch.

Kill 2 (Approx. 07:06): Nicholls immediately scanned for the next target: a Panzer III, 320 yards out, moving across his field of vision. It slowed momentarily. Nicholls fired. The shell struck and penetrated the side armor. The Panzer III lurched to a halt, its right track shredded.

Two kills in 90 seconds. The siege had begun.

IV. The Unstoppable Sledgehammer: Nine Kills in Four Hours

The standing doctrine of the British tank regiments—Fire, Move, Don’t stay exposed—now combined with Nicholls’ surgical precision. The battle on Ruweisat Ridge spread into a maelstrom of burning metal and exploding sand. Rommel’s Panzers were pushing hard, trying to punch through the ridge to the open desert.

The Germans, relying on their superior armor, were confident. Nicholls, relying on his hunting instinct, exploited their overconfidence and adherence to doctrine:

Kill 3 (07:30): Nicholls repositioned. A Panzer III at 280 yards, stopped, its commander likely assessing the British lines. Nicholls fired. The round penetrated. Three kills.

Kill 4: A Panzer IV advancing at 400 yards. Nicholls waited. At 300 yards, the German tank stopped to fire at an anti-tank position. Nicholls aimed for the hull side, where the armor was thinner than the frontal plate. The shell struck home. Four kills.

By 08:00, the battle was raging for an hour and 45 minutes. Nicholls had fired 17 rounds and confirmed four kills. British anti-tank gunners were taking a terrible toll, but they were being destroyed by counter-fire two-to-one. The ridge was becoming a killing ground.

The Climax of the Assault (08:20-09:30):

The German assault reached its zenith. Nine Panzers advanced in a coordinated line, attempting to overwhelm the defenders. Nicholls’s Crusader crew was exhausted, soaked in sweat and cordite fumes, but they fought on.

Kill 5: A Panzer IV advanced to 300 yards. It paused to aim. Nicholls fired. Turret side penetration. Five kills.

Kill 6: A stationary Panzer III at 260 yards. Hull side. Six kills.

Kill 7 & 8: Two more Panzers fell in quick succession as Nicholls’s loader worked frantically to keep the two-pounder fed.

By 09:00, Nicholls was down to only 12 rounds of ammunition. He made every shot count.

Kill 9 (09:25): A Panzer III positioned at 400 yards—long range for the two-pounder. The German tank was silhouetted against the morning sun. Nicholls compensated for distance, aiming high. The Panzer III stopped to fire. Nicholls squeezed the trigger. The shell flew true, striking the turret face at an angle and penetrating. The German tank’s ammunition exploded. The turret lifted six feet into the air and crashed back down.

Nine confirmed kills in one morning, using a gun that was considered obsolete, in a tank called a “Tin Can.” The assault began to falter at 09:40. The 15th Panzer Division had lost too many tanks, including the nine destroyed by Nicholls. Rommel’s coordinated push had broken into disarray. The German Panzers pulled back to regroup. Ruweisat Ridge had held.

VI. The Unprecedented Achievement and Montgomery’s Attention

The after-action report filed by Nicholls’s commander was astounding: Nine confirmed enemy tanks destroyed by Corporal Nicholls. No other British gunner in the brigade came close.

The number was so unprecedented—a single gunner achieving nine kills in a single engagement using a two-pounder—that Divisional Intelligence rigorously cross-referenced the claim. German radio intercepts mentioned heavy tank losses exactly where Nicholls was positioned. Aerial reconnaissance confirmed nine destroyed German tanks in a cluster corresponding to the 9th Lancers’ report. The claim checked out.

The news reached Eighth Army Headquarters, catching the attention of the newly appointed commander, General Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery understood the stark tactical reality: British tanks were inferior. The only way to win was through determination, superior numbers, and individual acts of extraordinary skill.

Montgomery personally ordered that Corporal Nicholls be found and congratulated. He believed in recognizing exceptional performance to boost the morale of an army desperately needing a hero.

Nicholls, unaware of the stir he had caused, spent the afternoon servicing his Crusader. He was exhausted, but he had survived.

His achievement earned him the Military Medal. General Montgomery personally congratulated Nicholls, telling him the Eighth Army needed more soldiers like him—men who could take inferior equipment and still defeat the enemy through skill.

VII. The Turning Tide and the Legacy of the Best Shot

Nicholls fought on. He added two more confirmed kills during the decisive Battle of Alam Halfa in August, using the same patient, hunting techniques.

The Allies finally won the logistical battle, and the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 marked the turning point. Nicholls and his crew eventually transferred to the American-built Sherman tank, which, with its 75mm gun and superior armor, could finally fight the Panzers on equal terms.

Nicholls and his crew survived the entire North African campaign, an extraordinary feat of luck and skill in a theater where tank crew casualties ran over 50%. He continued fighting through the Italian campaign until the war’s end. Though his confirmed kill total for the entire war is disputed (some sources claim over 40, officially verified is 13+), his performance on July 3rd, 1942, remains the most defining.

Alfie Nicholls returned to civilian life in the English countryside, eventually going back to using his marksmanship for legal hunting. He rarely spoke of the war, embodying the quiet, unassuming modesty of his generation of heroes.

He never sought recognition, but his legacy was secured: On a desperate morning, a corporal in a frail “Tin Can” tank, armed with an obsolete two-pounder gun, used the sharp instincts of a hunter to achieve the impossible. He proved that even against overwhelming technological odds, skill, patience, and determination could shatter the enemy’s spearhead and save an entire nation from defeat. The nine burning Panzers on Ruweisat Ridge marked the true beginning of the end for the Africa Corps in Egypt.