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.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
No comments:
Post a Comment