The Battle of El Guettar was a battle fought in Tunisia between the United States, Germany, and Italy during World War II.
On January 31, 1943 the US 34th Infantry Division and part of the US 1st Armored Division advanced toward Sened Station. The operation was intended to take them as far as Tunis, but Axis infantry and tanks, supported by aircraft, stopped the Americans on February 2.
At El Guettar a few battalions of well-entrenched Italian infantry again held up the US armoured-infantry columns, though the Americans did well in finally capturing Hills 290, 369 and 772.[1]
First clashes[]
The first phase of the offensive would require the securing of the Italian outpost at Sened Station. After being trucked to within striking distance, the 1st Rangers Battalion crossed their start-lines at 0510 hours on February 11, 1943 and almost reached the Italian outpost without being spotted.
As the three rifle companies closed-in for the attack, the Headquarters Company took up positions behind the Italian defenders with the intention of cutting-off their escape route. While Headquarters Company was setting up positions the rifle companies were making their way towards their objective under heavy fire from a machine gun sangar which opened up soon after they crossed the start-lines. As the Rangers cleared the outpost, an anti-aircraft crew unexpectedly began to zero in and pound Darby's command team, who had silhouetted themselves against the skyline.[2]
Mortars were successful in knocking out this and other heavy weapons, but it took four hours and casualties from machine-gun fire and protecting rifle-teams, before Sened Station was taken some time after 1000 hours.[3]
In just a few hours, the Rangers were victorious. The Rangers had killed or wounded some 50 Italians and captured eleven more from the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment. The victory had cost the Rangers one man killed and another 20 wounded.
Axis Main Defence-Line[]
The 2nd Battalion (Colonel Edwin H. Randle) from the 39th Infantry Regiment first attacked the Axis main defence-line at El Guettar on the evening of March 28, but ran into heavy fire from the alert Italians entrenched on Hill 290. The American lost several men killed and wounded and were forced to retreat back to their start-lines as a result. II Corps Operations Beyond El Guettar
On March 30, at 1000 hours the 47th Infantry Regiment attacked again, this time supported by heavy softening up fire. This assault was more successful and over three-hundred-and-fifty Italian soldiers were captured.[4]
The fighting continued, but the 2nd Battalion from the 47th Infantry Regiment made little progress in taking Hill 369 from the Italians. The ground gained in the night-fighting could not be held in the face of an Italian counterattack and heavy casualties forced the Americans to withdraw with Company E forced to surrender.[5]
It was also noticed that the Italians facing the Free French Division fought particularly well during this period of Allied stalemate, outdoing the Germans in line with them on El Hamma Ridge:
"The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days. Next morning Rommel ... replaced the Italians with crack German troops ... but the enemy, finally fellback into the ravine...the morale of 20-year-old [German] prisoners fresh from the Russian front was low, they made no attempt to hide their satisfaction at being out of the war." [6]
Final breakthrough[]
The 1st Infantry Division finally took their objective on April 3, though the 9th Division was still engaged in a bitter fight for Hill 772.
The Axis commander in the area Italian General Giovanni Messe sent in reinforcements from the 21st Panzer Division. By April 6, the US advance had stalled again with the 1st Armored Division reporting 304 killed in action, 1,265 wounded, 116 missing, and forty tanks destroyed in its push to get to Tunis.
References[]
- ↑ "Fought in the rugged region south of Gafsa, the Battle of El Guettar was a bona fide victory that did show American mettle ... Infantrymen of the 9th Infantry Division were in the thick of the action in the mountainous region. Italians accounted for most of the enemy forces." I Was with Patton, D. A. Lande, p.50, Turner Zenith Imprint, 2002
- ↑ "Artillery began to zoom in and explode near Darby's command team, who had silhouetted themselves atop the ridge." Patton's First Victory: How General George Patton Turned the Tide in North Africa and Defeated the Afrika Korps at El Guettar, Leo Barron, p.33, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
- ↑ "Most of the Italians had surrendered, and all that remained was a nasty machine-gun nest and the last of the enemy reserves. However, the Rangers were pinned down and could not destroy the last enemy crew-served weapon. They had exhausted all their 60mm mortar ammunition, leaving them with only their rifles and light machine guns ... Around 1000 hours, the Ranger command post reported over the field phone ... 'Everything cleared up except a few machine gun nest'." Patton's First Victory: How General George Patton Turned the Tide in North Africa and Defeated the Afrika Korps at El Guettar, Leo Barron, pp.35-36, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
- ↑ "On Tuesday, March 30, our artillery pounded enemy positions, and was, in turn, strafed and bombed by enemy aircraft. Following another barrage at 1000 hours, the 47th again attacked in the face of heavy fire, and took all objectives, small heights to their front. Capt. Thomas Wilson of Love Company was killed in the drive. A total of 353 prisoners were taken during the day in the vicinity of Hill 290. Nearly all Italian soldiers with no previous fighting experience but under the command of veteran German officers and non-coms." History of 47th Infantry Regiment, United States Army Unit Histories, p. ?, Army Navy Publishing House, 1947
- ↑ "At H-Hour, 6 A.M. March 28th, the 47th was in position to take the day's objective, Hill 369. It fell quickly, but the darkness and poor maps had led the 47th astray to El Hamra Ridge ... The 2nd Battalion 47th had been sent on a flanking movement that might have done the job. But it was caught in a murderous crossfire decimating Company E. The Battalion C.O. and the Communications Officer were captured as were the commander of Company E and 175 of his men." The 9th Infantry Division: Old Reliables, John Sperry, p.11, Turner Publishing Company, 2000
- ↑ Fighting French Troops' Part in Advance on Gabes, The Glasgow Herald, 1 April 1943