Battle of Kasserine Pass
The Battle of Kasserine Pass took place from 18-24 February 1943 at Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide (3.2 km) gap in the Grand Dorsal chain of the Atlas Mountains in west central Tunisia. It was a part of the Tunisian campaign of World War II.
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 were from the U.S. II Corps (Major General Lloyd Fredendall),[7] 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. The initial handful of American battalions suffered many casualties and were successively pushed back over 50 miles (80 km) from their original positions west of Faïd Pass, until they met an advancing brigade of the U.S. 1st Armored Division.[7] British forces were also driven back, losing all eleven of their tanks in the process.[8] After the initial reversal, Allied reinforcements with strong artillery support stopped the Axis advance, and an American counterattack recaptured the mountain passes in western Tunisia, defeating the Axis offensive. The Axis force was overextended and pinned down by the Allied artillery. Facing counterattacks and airstrikes, they withdrew from the Kasserine Pass by 24 February.
Anderson was subsequently criticised by his contemporaries for, among other things, dispersing the three combat commands of the 1st Armored Division, despite the objections of the divisional commander, Major-General Orlando Ward.[9][10][11][12] As a result of lessons learned in this battle, the U.S. Army instituted sweeping changes in unit organization and tactics, and replaced some commanders[7] and some types of equipment.
Aftermath[edit]
Casualties and losses[edit]
German losses at Kasserine were 201 killed, 536 wounded and 252 missing, totalling 989 casualties. In materiel, Germans lost 20 tanks, 67 vehicles and 14 guns.[48] Allied forces captured 73 German and 535 Italian soldiers.[49]
American losses totalled 300 killed, 3,000 wounded, and 3,000 missing. Losses were so high that an additional 7,000 replacements were needed to recover units to their original strength. The French losses on the 34th Division totalled 50 killed, 200 wounded and 250 missing.[5] Regarding Allied personnel captured, Rommel and Ziegler claimed 3,721 prisoners captured but in a consolidated report of February 24 they reported 4,026 Allied prisoners of war.[48]
Materiel losses of the US II Corps were 183 tanks, 104 half-tracks, 208 guns and 512 trucks and motor vehicles were lost, some of them captured by the Germans. The Allies also lost supplies and fuel,[5] since over 215 m3 (57,000 US gal) of gasoline and lubricants were seized along with 45 tons of ammunition.[48]