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.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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