[4] In early November 1941, the 4th battalion 16th Punjab Regiment moved to camp east of Sidi Barrani and undertook training in preparation of their part of Operation Crusader.

On the evening of 18 November, they formed up at Bir Deheusa, 5 miles northwest of the heavily defended Omar position.

[5][6][7] Libya was strategically important for the British because the amassing of a large Italian army at Tripolitania and Cyrenaica threatened the Suez Canal and Alexandria.

Pakistan roughly gained 2/5 of Kashmir in this war, although the outcome was a UN Intervention ceasefire, it is seen as a victory from the Pakistani perspective.

Numerous Pakistani soldiers had been killed by fire from the higher ground due to the elevated Indian position.

Raja and his men monitored Indian movement for a number of days in order to find gaps in their guard and times when their defences were weak.

The Indians were stunned at the scale of the attack and fell immediately under the pretense that a large Pakistani force had arrived.