Operations on Djebel Garci

On the left of the Division 5 Indian Brigade had won a toehold on the formidable peak, Djebel Garci, after severe fighting that had cost the leading companies 30 per cent casualties. By the next day, the 20th, four of the six infantry battalions of 4 Indian Division were committed on Garci, the first objective for this Division, and there had been approximately 500 casualties. On the night 22–23 April, by which time the main effort was to hold the ground so dearly won, the Indian division was relieved by a brigade from 51 (H) Division, called up from the rear where it had been preparing for Sicily.¹ For the Indian division, ‘the fighting on Garci had been the stickiest affair in two and a half years of savage fighting….’²