As night fell the German divisions settled down on the battlefield with 21st Panzer Division on high ground south of Sidi Rezegh and 15th Panzer Division south-west of Sciafsciuf. To ease Rommel's administrative and command problems Mussolini placed the Italian troops in the Marmarica under his authority. It remained the intention of the German commander to encircle and to destroy the British south of Sidi Rezegh and his orders for 23rd were that Ariete Division was to move at OS.OOhrs upon Gambut An hour earlier the German panzer forces, combining once again to form a solid armoured block, had also begun to move upon Bir el Gobi. By strengthening his left wing Rommel intended this to have sufficient force to encircle his opponents. To avoid the confusion which would arise through Ariete having British vehicles under command, the order was given that two white signal flares would be fired as the Axis recognition sign.
Some parts of 21st Panzer Division were retained to hold back the break-out attempts from Tobruk, while the remainder joined forces with 15th Panzer in its assault against Bir el Gobi. To form the western and northern sides of the ring the two Italian divisions Trieste and Pavia stood fast in their positions while to the east the German and Italian armour flung a noose around the British.
During the night, 5th South African Brigade attacked along the Trigh el Abd to the north of Bir el Gobi, while 13th Corps, in the course of its northern pincer drive moved a second New Zealand brigade up the Via Balbia towards Tobrnk and, this force coming across the tactical headquarters of the Africa Corps, attacked it dispersing part of it and pinning down anc isolating other sections temporarily from the main battle.
Sunday, 23 November dawned cold and very foggy, causing certain confusion among some of the units of 15th Panzer Division as they headed uncertainly in the poor light into what was the day of climax of the whole offensive. Within a few miles of the start of 8th Panzer Regiment's drive British tanks and vehicle concentrations had been met but the panzer group avoided a confrontation with these and struck south to take the British force in the flank. The 2nd Infantry Brigade and its anti-tank weapons were dropped off to form a gun line and to hold fast the British front while the mass of 15th Panzer Division carved its way southwards. It drove into a zone of artillery fire from guns which held position all round but, bursting through the hail of explosions, the columns concentrated, moved in towards the centre battalion, and, combining into a steel fist, struck at and through the British flank and rear areas, encountering and destroying in succession a supply column with its light armoured escort, 7th Support Group, and then 3rd Royal Tank Regiment which was on its way south to regroup.
Then the German front spread out again to cover a wider area and to drive before it, and, thus on to the guns of the other encircling units, the British formations which it met on its way. But the British were neither panic stricken nor incapable and flung in one armoured attack after the other in gallant, but un-coordinated assaults against the lunging German unit. From flank to flank the German anti-tank gunners were switched to hold the whole line of advance as 15th Panzer Division's left wing swung in a great steel scythe around the British flank and rear at Sidi Muftan.
Losses on both sides mounted as the British commanders realised the danger to their formations and flung in more units to hold back the German pincer. In the Bir el Halad area, held by 7th Support Group, the British commander formed a defence of successive anti-tank, tank and gun lines to defend his southern and south-eastern flank, and this aggressive defence forced 15th Panzer Division to swerve away and to seek a weaker spot along the flanks. From the east thrust the Germans and from Bir el Gobi the Italians, sending out armoured probing fingers. One of these found the boundary between 1st and 5th South African Brigades. The panzer group tore a gap between these Imperial troops through which reconnaissance detachments and armour poured, destroying as they advanced more British soft-skinned columns, then rolled up the flanks of the South African brigades and destroyed with artillery fire the concentration of British tanks which were assembling for fresh assaults.
But the helter-skelter advance of 15th Panzer Division had strung that force across the desert leaving it in isolated and unsupported groups. A halt was called to regroup; a short rest and then, towards midday, the attack rolled forward again still pursued and accompanied by British artillery fire. Just after midday at a point only 10 miles north-east of Bir el Gobi, white Verey lights shone in the sky to indicate that just ahead of the German panzer units lay the armoured fighting vehicles of Ariete Division. The ring, however loosely fitting, had been closed and imprisoned within it was the mass of 7th Armoured Division.
At 15-OOhrs and from the south came the main thrust upon the strategic Point 179 to drive 8th Army's armour on to the waiting gun lines of 21st Panzer Division. For the attack 5th Panzer Regiment was on the right and 8th Panzer Regiment on the left. These were reinforced with field artillery, whose principal task it was to support the infantry together with 18th Flak Regiment and their deadly 8.8cm guns, and followed by infantry from 90th Light Division. The German box poured up from the south but Ariete, which should have taken position on the left flank of the advance, arrived too late on the battlefield and took no active part in it.
The giant wedge of German armour-hurtled across the desert raising clouds of dust in its advance but was then struck by a hurricane of artillery and anti-tank gun fire which the British poured upon it. As the range decreased casualties inside the German box began to mount and on the sector where the anti-tank gunners of 5th South African Brigade held post the first wave of panzers was almost upon the slit trench line before the order was given tc open fire. Then the Boer gunners, working their pieces with frenzy, drove back the armour of 15th Panzer Division but it regrouped out of range and then came on again; but this time against a weaker sector of the line and forced a breach. Forward into the gap poured the riflemen of 115th Regiment but the Imperial infantry inflicted upon their officers and NCOs such losses that the attack halted and then receded as the German riflemen flooded back. The commanders and the staff officers reformed them and brought them forward again, up to, into, and then through the gap. The fighting became general and confused: infantry fought against infantry, tank versus tank, artillery battery against artillery battery. Attack was followed by counter-attack and then another attack as fighting swung first to the advantage of one side and then to that of the other. In vain did 22nd Brigade swing a left hook from the southeast; it was held, caught, and deflected with terrible loss. Carving its way through the British positions the 8th Panzer Regiment's 1st Battalion had, by 17:00 hrs, forced a salient 8 miles deep and then upon the aerodrome at Sidi Rezegh linked with the advanced elements of 21st Panzer Division. This was the killing thrust but the British and Imperial troops, fighting for their very existence, battled on. To the east vehicles of 5th Panzer Regiment then carried the advance forward to link up with 21st Panzer's left wing and then the intensity of battle began to die down leaving only 2nd Battalion of 8th Panzer Regiment still involved in beating back counter-attacks which were still beins mounted against it.
By 17:30hrs British resistance began to weaken and as darkness fell the whole area south of Sidi Rezegh was seen to be dotted with the fires of burning tanks and trucks. Explosions and shell fire lit momentarily the darkness under whose cover individual British vehicles and units were trying to storm their way through the Axis ring or to slip away and to make good their escape. The hours of darkness were used by both sides to regroup — a task made more difficult for the Axis troops than for their opponents for no wireless link had existed between Africa Corps headquarters and its subordinate units since the time that the New Zealand attack had dispersed it.