Kasserine Pass

After the Anglo-American landings in North Africa on November 8, 1942, the Americans remained optimistic about their ability to fight an opponent like Rommel and the Afrika Korps. Although in headlong retreat after the Battle of El Alamein, Rommel was …

1943-02-22

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After the Anglo-American landings in North Africa on November 8, 1942, the Americans remained optimistic about their ability to fight an opponent like Rommel and the Afrika Korps. Although in headlong retreat after the Battle of El Alamein, Rommel was not without the ability to fight, and prepared to teach the U.S. forces a lesson the British had already dearly learned. The green Americans moved slowly to take advantage of the Axis retreat, and while Montgomery pursued Rommel across North Africa, taking Tripoli on January 23, 1943, the Americans did not press the Axis western flank. Eisenhower would later write that the American operations "violated every recognized principle of war." Rommel and his junior officers were openly contemptuous of the Americans' ability to fight. After a buildup that included the heavy Tiger I tanks, Rommel concluded that Kasserine Pass was the soft spot in the American lines. On February 20th, he personally led the attack that cracked the American defenses and sent them reeling back. Almost everything the Americans believed was wrong. U.S. tactical doctrine was inflexible and did not account for the rapid German armored advances. The Americans suffered heavy losses of 1,000 dead, hundreds taken prisoner, and most of their heavy equipment. The Axis victory would entice German commanders to underestimate the Americans in the future. Kasserine Pass taught the Americans the doctrine of massed firepower, mass artillery fire, and to coordinate aircraft with ground forces. This costly and valuable lesson would serve the Americans well in the difficult and bloody campaigns ahead.

Kasserine Pass, Tunisia

The Battle of Kasserine Pass was a series of battles of the Tunisia Campaign of World War II that took place in February 1943. Covering Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide (3.2 km) gap in the Grand Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains in west central Tunisia. The Axis forces, led by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, were primarily from the Afrika Korps Assault Group, the Italian Centauro Armored Division and two Panzer divisions detached from the 5th Panzer Army, while the Allied forces consisted of the U.S. II Corps (Major General Lloyd Fredendall), the British 6th Armoured Division (Major-General Charles Keightley) and other parts of the First Army (Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson). The battle was the first major engagement between U.S. and Axis forces in Africa. Inexperienced and poorly led American troops suffered many casualties and were quickly pushed back over 50 miles (80 km) from their positions west of Faïd Pass. This result confirmed a prediction of Winston Churchill, who had strongly advocated that the invasion of France as laid out in the proposed 1942 plan Operation Roundup be delayed until the Allies could support such an ambitious undertaking, which would give the U.S. troops time to get up to speed with the realities of war against the experienced and well-equipped Germans. After the early defeat, elements of the U.S. II Corps, with British reinforcements, rallied and held the exits through mountain passes in western Tunisia, defeating the Axis offensive. As a result of the battle, the U.S. Army instituted sweeping changes of unit organization and replaced commanders and some types of equipment.

Wikipedia: Battle of Kasserine Pass

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