The 3rd South African Infantry Brigade was an infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 brigade of the army

South African Army

The South African Army is the army of South Africa, first formed after the Union of South Africa was created in 1910.The South African military evolved within the tradition of frontier warfare fought by commando forces, reinforced by the Afrikaners' historical distrust of large standing armies...

 of the Union of South Africa

Union of South Africa

The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

 during World War II

Military history of South Africa during World War II

During World War II, many South Africans saw military service. The Union of South Africa participated with other British Commonwealth forces in battles in North Africa against Erwin Rommel and his Nazi forces, and many South African pilots joined the Royal Air Force and fought against the Axis...

. The Brigade formed part of the South African 1st Infantry Division and was formed on 13 August 1940. It served in the Western Desert

Libyan Desert

The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 km2, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle...

 and was disbanded on 1 January 1943.

During the Western Desert Campaign

Western Desert Campaign

The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War, was the initial stage of the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allied forces, operating from besieged Malta, to...

 (at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein), the Officer Commanding was Brig. R.J. Palmer and the brigade comprised the following units:

• 3rd South African Infantry Brigade
  • 1st Imperial Light Horse SA Infantry Corps
  • 1st Rand Light Infantry
    Rand Light Infantry
    The Rand Light Infantry is an infantry regiment of the South African Army. As a reserve unit, it has a status roughly equivalent to that of a British Territorial Army or United States Army National Guard unit.-History:...
    
     SA Infantry Corps
  • 1st Royal Durban Light Infantry SA Infantry Corps
  • One Troop 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Battery SA Artillery Corps
  • 2nd Field Company SA Engineering Corps