T R O U B L E D V A L E N T I N E
love
dad
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Sidi Bou Zid
Sunday's Panzer beating of US forces
was done by a diversionary force and it was
not the main attack, according to Allied brass
at HQ. The real effort was yet to come further
north. That was why the commander of
1st Armored Division ordered only a battalion
size counterattack for the next morning.
50 Sherman tanks should be enough to handle
whatever lay waiting for them down the road
at Sidi Bou Zid.
Not quite. The Allied generals were deceived
by a German head fake. And the punch wasn't
going to be a jab but a roundhouse right.
Rommel intended to route the beejeebers out of the
amateur American army. He would have them
running all the way back to Casablanca.
That was the greeting Rommel had planned for
the inexperienced Yanks.
Wreckage of all sorts would become the price of
having to learn from one's mistakes.
The counterattack wasn't underway until after noon.
Chaos created by a German dive bomber attack
took two hours to straighten out.
Attacking Sidi Bou Zid was a three company
wedge of the new M4 Sherman tanks.
These were direct from Detroit, where they
would be produced by the thousands.
By contrast the Germans could manage to
produce no more than a dozen Tiger tanks
a week. They were simply too difficult to make.
Flank security was provided by these
tank destroyer halftracks, running along
side the tanks. The shells they fired weren't
designed to penetrate German tank armor.
It didn't help morale when the rounds fired
bounced useless off the enemy tank.
12:40 pm.
Steep-sided desert gullies were obstacles to
Ward's armored formation. So were the Luftwaffe
pilots, busy divebombing once again overhead.
Tanks scattered and chaos ensued. The attack
timetable was further set back. But it wouldn't
much matter. Yankee tankers would soon deal
with far bigger worries.
There isn't time to hook a howitzer to a truck
when a tank is coming. Artillery needs to move
quick, along with the tanks, on an armored battlefield.
3:15 pm
Shells coming in from German artillery hidden
behind Sidi Bou Zid. Panzer tanks, 15 of them,
spring from the village and race directly toward
the charging Shermans.
Jeeps chauffer officers. Army halftracks do
most everything else. They were a Hummer on steroids.
Here it provided the platform for antiaircraft guns.
Other times it would carry the GIs needed for
infantry tank protection. Tanks were nearly blind.
Enemy troops could easily sneak up on them and
carry out their bad intentions.
3:25 pm
14 German tanks appeared suddenly from the shadows
of Lassouda. Dive-bombers struck again.
Still more panzers appeared and joined the fray.
Nothing like disaster to clear your mind.
The Americans had fallen into a trap.
German panzer tanks waited patiently for
the American tank formation to arrive.
A battalion of Shermans charged into the teeth
of two panzer divisions. This became the live-fire
lesson plan for the day.
In two days two battalions of tanks were wiped out,
as were two artillery battalions. And two entire
infantry battalions were swallowed up by a
sea of German troops.
Americans needed a whole new game plan.
Rommel was about to blow through the door.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, February 9, 2025
happy birthday Jessicca!
LOOKS LIKE SATURDAY
APPLE PICKING
LITTLE BROTHER
CHRISTMAS
LATE NIGHT
BEST FRIENDS
EASTER
PUMPKIN PATCH
FIRST DATE
ICE CREAM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICCA!
love
dad
good morning justin
B - 29 Tail Gun
A small door is provided for the gunner's escape hatch
if the plane suddenly plummets towards Earth.
It beats scrambling halfway down the fuselage
to find another way out.
C - 97 Stratofreighter
An early Cold War cargo plane used by the Army.
The aircraft is basically a B-29 with a different fuselage.
It was called upon to provide a quick reinforcement
capability when US and Soviet tanks confronted
one another during the Berlin crisis of 1961.
B - 17G Chin Gun
Luftwaffe pilots discovered the safest way to attack
the Flying Fortress was to fly head-on towards its front.
Their fire killed those piloting the bomber.
The solution was to add a duel .50 under the nose.
Being a B - 17 pilot became slightly less harrowing.
F - 4 Phantom
The aerial workhorse over Vietnam - both
north and south of the DMZ. Let's say
you're in a firefight too big for your resources.
You radio a call for support. Maybe mortars
from battalion is what you need. If not,
the next step up is regimental artillery or
possibly a Huey gunship. If you're still
taking a beating then keep your head down
because a Phantom is about to unleash
ordinance Hell in front of you.
F - 89 Scorpion
It's mission was to intercept enemy jet bombers.
The sooner the better. You want the speed of
twin jet engines. Dogfight ability isn't needed
to knock a lumbering bomber from the sky.
This is a dart doing nearly 650 mph.
So what's with the windshield wiper?
Everything is swept away by the wind.
B - 52 Tail Gun
The B - 29 had 4 remote control turrets for defense
but they still needed a human cramped in the back
to protect their rear. It lingered into the jet age
until technology caught up with the need.
love
dad
Saturday, February 8, 2025
First Blood
Saturday 13 Feb. 1:30 pm
American flyers respond to report of enemy trucks
driving north to south just east of Faid.
The pilots strafe and bomb an estimated 100 vehicles
loaded with troops. As a result 20 trucks are claimed
to have been destroyed.
13 Feb. Saturday - late afternoon.
German troops begin sporadic shelling of American
troops entrenched atop Djebel Lassouda -
a hill that guards the road to Sbeitla. A few
short miles away a second hilltop, Djebel Ksaira,
is similarly fortified with Yanks guarding the highway.
13 Feb: Saturday evening
General Eisenhower came to Tebessa to survey
General Fredendall's deployment of US troops.
The commander of II Corps didn't foresee any
major action on this front. The 1st Armored Division
was scattered about the Sbeitla plain despite
Army doctrine calling for concentrating your armored
power. There was dissention among Fredendall's
field commanders. For one thing, he was making
decisions without knowing the circumstance.
Only once had he even visited the frontline and
his visit there was too brief to assess the terrain.
Eisenhower was not one to interfere.
He deferred tactical decisions to his subordinates.
His commanders were picked with the expectation
they were up to the job. He left for Constantine
keeping his beliefs to himself.
A warning from Allied intelligence was just received.
Axis forces would attack in the morning -
Valentine's day. The question was where.
General Anderson, the front's commander, believed
the assault would be up around Tunis.
An attack into central Tunisia would be a diversion.
Very manageable.
14 Feb. Sunday 4:00 am
German forces attack Sidi Bou Zid.
5:30 am.
Upon his arrival at Constantine, Eisenhower receives
news of fierce fighting around the small Arab village.
General McQuillin of Combat Command A, CCA,
reports his men are holding their own.
He counterattacks with his tanks charging
across an open plain.
14 Feb. Sunday - midafternoon
Setbacks reported.
Two American infantry battalions were surrounded,
marooned on two separate hilltops near Sidi Bou Zid.
Meanwhile to the south Combat Command A was
fighting for its survival.
The quick, bold charge of tanks was easily repulsed.
The long distance guns on the Tiger tanks easily picked
off all Yankee armor before they ever got close.
Now nothing stood in the way of advancing German armor.
14 Feb Sunday evening
Germans controlled Sidi Bou Zid.
The Americans were in retreat to Sbeitla.
Their tank battalion destroyed.
Their artillery overrun. They'd been routed.
The two infantry battalions surrounded on the hilltops
of Lassouda and Ksaira took advantage of darkness
and attempted to escape the German noose by
slipping through enemy lines in small groups of 2 or 3.
It was an unfair fight.
Battalions of inexperienced GIs taking on
divisions of experienced Panzer troops.
And something else was wrong.
U.S. Army armored doctrine was obsolete.
Someone needed to shake it up.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, February 2, 2025
good morning jacob
60 Month Financing
0 Down
It's yours
Speed: 30 mph
Capacity: 25 cubic yards
Imagine what you can do in a day
love
dad
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Faid
Axis troops were being crowded into the coastal
area extending from the Mediterranean port of Bizerte
in the north to Gabes in the south. The Allies wanted to
use the mountain pass at Faid to strike east, dividing
the German force by capturing Sfax.
Hitler's man in North Africa, General Arnim, responded
by sending a division of German tanks to wrest
Faid from its poorly equipped French defenders.
Armin determined that all mountain passes leading
to the Tunisian coast would be under his control.
The Eastern Dorsal mountain range rose to over
four thousand feet at its highest and provided
safe-haven for North Africa's Axis troops.
It was an effective fortress with its passes armed
to the teeth. But it was only a defense.
Rommel had a plan to win.
He wouldn't stop with taking Faid but
continue west, routing the Yanks at Kasserine.
Then on to Tebessa - capturing its vast stores
of Allied tanks, trucks, ammunition, fuel and all
the other supplies Rommel would need to stock
his major offensive.
He would drive Allied forces back into Algeria,
all the way to the Mediterranean shore.
Frankly, Rommel knew his strategy was
a long shot. That's what he did best.
The audacious gamble.
Arnim's defense was a half-measure leading only
to ultimate defeat.
American tankers were far better trained than
the stateside GIs that were rushed across the
Atlantic to land on North African beaches.
Tanks of the 1st Armored Division were dispersed
on a large plain surrounding Sidi Bou Zid.
The French at Faid made desperate pleas for their
help. There was no time to spare.
The American II Corps commander had other ideas.
His response would have been piecemeal at best.
It wouldn't be enough to stop the 10th Panzer Division.
Not with those Yankee Doodle tanks.
The ones engineered by Dr. Seuss.
The Germans proved to be their own worst enemy.
They were of two minds in countering Allied strategy.
Arnim was the realist. The resources to fuel
a German offensive against the Allies didn't exist.
Only high risk action will save the day according
to Rommel.
You have no choice.
But there would be no unified command.
Coordination and cooperation between
the two rival generals was grudging at best.
Jealousies helped defeat the German effort.
The rifleman.
Chances are he doesn't know where he is or
where he is going. He knows what is needed
for him to be a rifleman. That's it.
The perfect POW. He knows nothing,
Maybe you find yourself sitting in the back of a truck
one bitter cold night. You've been going nowhere
now for three straight hours. What's happening?
No one knows. Don't worry about it.
It's the Army.
American officers spent too much time being uncertain.
Where's the enemy? What's his disposition?
Those are standard, healthy questions.
Who's in charge? Whose orders do I obey?
This is where military chain of command breaks down.
The American response to the conflict at Faid
revealed fractured leadership among the top brass
at II Corps. General Fredendall distrusted the
reports coming from his commanders in the field.
This led to bad decision-making on everyone's part.
Opportunities were missed. Mistakes made.
Battles lost.
There was frustration and finger-pointing
among the generals going into Kasserine.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
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